Nanotech Ninja
by MrWriterWriter
Summary: An experiment from ages past bonds to Naruto, creating something to be reckoned with. Cybernetic, Strong, Somewhat cynical, smartarse Naruto. Possible Harem. M for violence
1. Chapter 1

**Diclaimer. I don't own Naruto. The other guy does.**

Speech

_Thought_

**Kyuubi**

Ok, I got the inspiration for this one while I was reading VFSNAKE's 'Conspiracies and Deception' (don't ask me how it came to me). It's mainly just something I'm gonna do for fun, so odds are it probably won't be so hot. So if you don't like it, just go read something else.

That said, here goes...

xxxxxxxxxx

**Nanotech Ninja**

Prolouge:

As far back as he could remember, Asuma considered his father to be somewhat of a relaxed individual. It was hard to make the eldery man loose his cool; but on the rare occasion that happened, people quickly remembered why he was the Hokage.

This was one of those times, the reason being the unfortunate ANBU Sarutobi had by the throat when his son came up..

"Dad! What the hell?" Asuma had no idea what happened, but knew that whatever it was, the man in his grip was going to pay dearly.

The Hokage's voice was surprisingly calm, though his eyes betrayed the fury they held, "This was supposed to be his day, Asuma." He said, not taking his eyes off the man he was throttling.

"'His'?" Asuma blinked, "Oh yeah, Naruto's 8 now. He was supposed to have enrolled in the academy today."

"I'm afraid that didn't happen. It seems when Naruto tried to attend class, he was attacked on the way.."

"Is he all right!?" Asuma started to leave for the hospital to make sure. Just like the way his dad saw the blonde as a surrogate grandson, he'd taken to Naruto more like a younger brother.

"He's not at the hospital, Asuma. I don't know where he is now...all I do know is this..this BASTARD.." There was a resounding snap as the Hokage broke the man's neck, "And two others took Naruto somewhere outside Konoha and made an attempt to get rid of him. Fortunately, Gai was out on a training run and caught them while they were taking their hate out on him before the final blow. However, Naruto was nowhere to be found afterwards." He hurled the lifeless corpse aside, tears starting to form, "All..all they found was Naruto's right arm in the grass. One of them admitted that somehow Naruto managed to get away in the fight. Gai and others are still searching for him...I can only pray they find him.."

xxxxxxxx

Naruto gasped for air. He didn't know whether it was from fear or the pain, all he knew was he could hardly breath at the moment. Last he remembered was three shinobi muttering something about 'finishing off the demon', then a man dressed in green attacking...as he did, one of then brought his sword down on him and...

"Itai..." He tried to bite back the pain, still clutching the stump where his arm once was. It had stopped bleeding at least, but the rest of him had taken a beating. As he tried to catch his breath, he looked to see where he was. When he was trying to get away, the ground gave out from under him and he tumbled down some kind of hole.

A few minutes later the pain had subsided enough to be tolerable and he got up from the heap he was in.

"Where am I..?" He asked to no one in particular, wherever he was it was pitch black aside from the sunlight peeking through the hole he fell through. As he looked up, it seemed almost like some kind of vent. He crawled up to his feet and tried to feel around for a door or something. "Hello..?"

He ran his hand over the first wall he came to until he felt a switch of some kind, accidentally activating it as he did. He flinched when every suddenly burst into view. Blinking to clear the spots, he found it was some kind of room. Weird machinery lined the walls, but they looked like they were all off. In the middle stood a strange-looking table with a big glass ball on top. His curiosity roused, he slowly advanced on it. As he got close, he noticed inside it was some kind of oily grayish-blue fluid.

"Looks kinda..ew, kinda like snot.." He muttered, absentmindedly giving it a poke. Unfortunately for him, the poke was enough to jostle it into motion. Naruto's eyes widened as it rolled off the table and crashed to the floor.

"Oh no.." He started to panic, thinking someone heard it. However, his fear of being caught was superseded by the sight of the liquid starting to move on its own, forcing Naruto to stumble backwards. The puddle slowly collected into a small mound, the tip stretching out slightly.

Without warning, it shot straight towards him. The boy never had time to scream before it impacted, and the next thing he knew was darkness.

xxxxxxxx

"Naruto! Naruto, can you hear me!?" The sound of the Hokage's voice ripped through the darkness.

Naruto groaned as he forced an eye open, "O-Ojiji? That you?" He winced at the sudden bright light and tried to shield his eyes, only to stop and stare at his hand, "Ojiji, how..how did I get my hand back...? And why is it shiny??"

xxxxxxxx

Like I said, it might not be my best work, so if you actually did like it, send a review.

Warning! there will be SasuSaku bashing and poking fun at Kakashi.

Next time: The Tale of the Gunk, and a Deal with a (rather cute) Demon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclainer...**

**...**

**...**

**What more do you want from me!? nervous breakdown**

Speech

_Thought_

**Kyuubi**

**Aoirann**: 'Fraid I haven't. But I'm up for a few suggestions.

xxxxxxxx

"M-My hand.." Naruto stammered, a mix of surprise and fear plastered on his face. He remembered the ANBU's sword had cut his right arm off just below the elbow. It was back now, but this one was all silvery and seemed to shine in the light. What freaked him out more was that it was moving naturally, completely under his control. He set it back down almost jumped when he realized he was actually feeling the bed sheets under the limb, "Ojiji! W-What's going on!?" He cried out, starting to panic.

"Naruto! Naruto, calm down, you're going to be ok. You're just in the hospital." Sarutobi sat a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. However the look of worry remained on his face. The Hokage sighed, "Naruto, to be honest, we aren't really sure what exactly happened to you. Some of the Inuzuka's dogs were able to finally track you down, but you were already unconscious and that.." He looked at the gleaming metal limb, "Was already there by the time you were found. That was more than a week ago.."

"A...A week?" Naruto's eyes widened, "The Acadmey! I still haven't enrolled!"

Sarutobi flinched at what he was going to have to do in response to that, "Naruto, I'm sorry..but until we can get a better idea of what happened, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay here."

"But..but Ojiji.." The dissappointment was evident in the boy's voice.

"I know I promised you you'd get in at the start of term, but we need to be sure there won't be any negative side-effects."

Naruto's face fell, " All right..stupid ball..this is all it's fault." He sulked, not expecting the old man to hear.

"What ball are you talking about, Naruto?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow.

"Oh..that glass ball I found in there...it rolled off the table it was sitting on and broke when I poked it..this gross-looking stuff was inside. When it broke, the gunk stood up and jumped at me. I woke up here..."

"Wait..the 'gunk' in the ball jumped at you??" Sarutobi recalled one of the Inuzuka saying the room they found him in was akin to a small lab. From the description, the place had been there since before Konoha was founded. Naruto had been laying near a table in the center with broken glass around it. It didn't take a jounin to figure out whatever was in it had a hand in the boy's current state. The question now was what exactly.

"Listen, Naruto. I have to go for now." He lightly ruffeled the blonde's head, "I suggest you try and relax. Hopefully it won't be long before we figure things out."

The boy hesitated before nodding in assent and watched the Hokage head out of the room. He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, "I hate hospitals." He whined to no one in particular.

The Hokage started towards the stairs when he heard some call out "Hokage-Sama!" from behind him. He turned to see one of the senior doctors come skidding to a halt in front of him, gasping for air. In his hand was what looked to be several x-rays.

"H-Hokage-Sama.." The man gasped, "You..you might want to see these."

xxxxxxxx

Sarutobi was gobsmacked after seeing the second batch of x-rays, "Are you sure about this??"

The doctor nodded, "Without a doubt, Hokage-Sama. The arm is composed of some unusual alloy. It's extremely strong, yet...well, one of the healers attempted to use a chakra scalpel on it. It was as if she had run her finger over the surface of a pond, the metal simply rippled for a moment then resumed its original hardness. It's..it's completely alien to us." The man quickly took out a small flask from his pocket and took a swig before continuing, "We asked the Hyuugas to send a member to see if they could shed some light on things. Hiashi-Sama himself came." He took a deep breath, "Hokage-Sama...according to him, the arm is developing its own chaka pathways."

"Are you serious??" The Hokage felt the need to sit down, "Artificial paths..that's impossible!"

The doctor nodded, "If Hiashi-Sama says that's what he saw, I'm not going to argue with him. It's as if the arm is working to replace what Naruto lost. However..the arm is only the tip of the iceberg." He took another swig.

This time the Hokage promptly sat on the first chair he found, "There's more?"

"Whatever the arm is mad of, there's even more of the material in his body." He put up several more x-rays, "It's adhering to just about everything."

"Nerves, organs, even muscle and bone...it seems to be completely integrating itself into his system." Sarutobi said, taking note of the light-colored marks cris-crossing through everything in the images.

"I believe the arm was the first thing that showed up. The rest seems to have been spreading slowly over the course of the week. Aside from that, I'm afraid we're still in the dark as to what's going on. On the plus side, we can't seem to find anything that looks to be detrimental but I'd like keep a close watch on him for now just to be safe. Hopefully we'll figure out what it is"

Sarutobi nodded, "Very well. Let me know if anything new turns up." He got to his feet, albeit a tad shakily and started his way back home, _"I hope this doesn't come back to bite us. Especially you, Naruto."_

The moment he was outside he glanced around, "Nezumi, Tora." The moment he called out those words, a pair of ANBU Black Ops appeared in front of him, "I want you two to go back to the lab Naruto was found in. Go over it with a fine-tooth comb and bring back anything that might tell us what was being worked on, no matter how minor."

"Hai, Hokage-Sama." The two shinobi said, blurring out of sight.

Sarutobi took out his pipe and took a long puff on it. Regardless of what they learned, Naruto's life was never going to be the same.

xxxxxxxx

Drip...

"Hn..hmm..?"

Drip...

"Wha..? Aw no..no..I grew out of that!"

**"If you're referring to what I think you are, you don't have to worry about that." **A voice chuckled.

The second it spoke, Naruto scrambled to his feet. He felt a chill run up his spine when he realized he wasn't in the hospital room. Not he wasn't complaining, but where he was instead didn't seem much better. Instead on the stark white oom, he was now in a dark, clammy tunnel. Rusty-looking pipes ran along the walls into the darkness. As he stood, he realized he was knee deep in water with a gigantic locked gate in front of him with a piece of paper carrying the kanji for 'seal' pasted over the lock. On the other side was complete darkness.

"Who..who are you?" Naruto called out, looking around uneasily, "A-And what is this place?"

**"To be blunt, this is your mind, Naruto." **The voice responded, this time coming from the other side of the gate and making Naruto fall over in fright.

"My..my mind...wha?"

**"Let's just say it's a reflection of how you feel most of the time. I'm guessing miserable considering how those shi...slimeballs in town treat you." **The voice said, though Naruto caught it catching itself in mid-swear, **"As for who I am. I'll let you see for yourself." **As soon as those words were spoke, a massive fox head emerged from the shadows, its glowing red eyes looking straight at him.

"Y-Y-You're the Kyuubi!" Naruto jumped back in fright, "B-But you..you can't be alive! The Fourth...he k-killed you!"

**"Not quite. Even he wasn't strong to defeat me like that; so he gave up his life to seal to me away. He sealed me into you."**

Naruto stood there for a moment in shock before the pieces started falling into place; his birthday and the anniversary of the fox's defeat on the same date plus the increased aggression towards him on that day, the shouts of 'demon' and other insults, "You..." He said, looking Kyuubi dead in the eyes, "You're why they hate me so much..."

**"Unfortunately, yes." **The fox lowered its head in what Naruto could almost recognize as..shame, **"I'm not proud of I did 8 years ago. And to honest..the circumstances behind it are rather embarrassing..."**

"Why? What happened?" Naruto cocked his head to the side in curiosity.

The fox sighed, **"Well...the Raikage pissed me off..I'll tell you why when your older. " **It added before he could say anything, **"Anyway, I made up my mind ro go to Cloud and give them a piece of my mind. Unfortunately," **It almost looked like the fox was turning even redder from embarrassment, **"I..I was too mad to think straight and got my directions mixed up. Needless to say, I saw the Leaf Village and went in without making sure."**

"So you were a baka." Naruto stated.

**"Don't remind me..." **The fox took a minute to regain its composure, **"Anyway, I brought you here to make a deal with you."**

"A deal..?" Naruto looked at the red eyes warily. 8 years of attacks had given him a sense of caution most his age wouldn't even begin to have. His excitement at going to the academy being the only thing that allowed him to be captured last time. And right now it was kicking in, "Wait, how do I know you're not just making things up to try and trick me, Kyuubi!?"

**"Because what I propose can help us both." **The fox pulled its head back into the darkness** "And for the record, my name isn't Kyuubi. It's Kasumi"**

"Kasumi? But that's a girl's name..." His train of thought came to a thundering halt as he saw what came out from the shadows in place of the fox head.

"**Oh? And what** would you call me?" The voice quickly shifted from its gruff rumbling and took on a more demure, feminine tone. Now, Naruto may have just been 8, but he knew what a pretty girl looked like, and the one standing opposite from him fit the notion to a T: bright orange eyes, blood-red hair done up in a pair of waist-length pigtails that draped behind her head, ending in black tips to match the two fox ears sticking up through her hair and dressed in a slightly baggy sleeveless sweater and shorts with a bushy fox tail poking out between them. She had a somewhat slender build and standing at little more than 5'4", but still attractive. He noticed a pair of small fangs peeking out from behind her upper lip, but they seemed to just make her a little cuter as far as he was concerned.

"K-kawaii..." Was all the blonde could muster, making the redhead giggle.

"Aw, that's sweet of you, Naru-chan." Kasumi said playfully, "Now, are you interested in hearing my offer?"

Naruto gulped, even though he knew what a prety girl looked like, he wasn't all that sure how to act around one, "Wha..what do you h-have in mind?"

xxxxxxxx

Ok, Im' planning to give Naruto 3 capabilities with his new additions. Since his arm is composed of nanites, it makes sense that they could possibly rearrange to form weapons, kinda like the T1000 (just close-range stuff like blades and maces, no laser cannons obviously). The other 2 I'm gonna let you guys recommend; amplified strength/speed, enhanced senses? You name it.

Next time: Enter the Nanosoul.


	3. Chapter 3

Speech

_Thought_

**Kyuubi**

Ok, I've decided on the second one: amplified abilities. I know, it's been done who knows how much, but technically he IS bionic now in a way; and since the nanites are spread through his body, I figured to add it on principal. The third'll be announced next chapter. Plus I'm throwing in one for opinions; something akin to the Sharingan, but more like a video camera to let him record techniques to study, not copy outright.

xxxxxxxx

"What do you have in mind?" Naruto gulped, not really sure how to act around the girl in front of him. Kasumi looked to be about 15, almost twice his age. He had heard from other boys that teenage girls could be temperamental, so he decided to let his cautious side take the stage.

Kasumi grinned, a look that made her seem downright harmless, "Well, since it is partially my fault your life's the equivalent of an unflushed toilet, I'm going to help you with learning to defend yourself as well as control your new addition. In exchange, you take part of this seal off so I can enjoy the outside world. I give you my word that I'm not going to flatten Konoha the minute I'm out. Like I said, that was a goof-up on my part." She quickly added after Naruto's eyes nearly bugged out, "Although I have made up a list of a few temes in this village that deserve a good beating, but that's beside the point. I just wanna get some fresh air and stretch my legs a bit. Eight years in a room where you can hardly stand up isn't much fun. Besides, the lion's share of my chakra'll still be held back by the seal."

"Well...you don't seem like you're lying, but I don't know anything about seals." Naruto looked up at the piece of paper with a hit of apprehension.

"Relax, just rip.." However her instructions were cut off by a sudden shriek from Naruto. She looked to see him shaking on the floor, trying to back away from..something that had seemed to show up out of nowhere. A large steel sphere the size of one of the Inuzuka's biggest dogs stood on six jointed legs like a spider. She watched as it started turning into his direction, it's legs clicking rapidly as it moved. Once it was what one could only assume was facing him, it suddenly straightened up, as if it had just snapped to attention.

"_INTEGRATION PROTOCOLS COMPLETE. WARNING: HOST'S ENERGY LEVELS DO NOT MATCH PHYSICAL PARAMETERS. REQUEST RECTIFYING BEFORE INITIATING MERGING SEQUENCE_" It suddenly called out in a hallow metallic voice.

"What the heck's THAT?!" Naruto yelled, scrambling against Kasumi's bars in an attempt to get away from it.

The moment he was close, she managed to reach out and wrap an arm around him, "Naruto, it's ok. I..I think that just a representation of your new nanites."

"W-what's a 'nana-night' ??"

"Nanites, Naruto." She chuckled, "Their basically really tiny machines. Too small to see with a human eye. It's easier if you think of them like ants. They all work as one big unit, more or less. They must've been what was in that glass ball you broke."

"You mean there's more of them.." He gulped again, _Inside _me??"

"Yep. Your new arm is made entirely out of them, and according to this one, it looks like the rest have all spread to the rest of your body." She pursed her lips in thought, "Although I'm surprised some still existed. They were all supposedly destroyed long before the first shinobi war.

Naruto looked at his arm with a slightly creeped out expression before he recalled what the machine said, "Wait, what'd it mean by 'host's levels' and all that other stuff it said"

"Well, if I understood it right, they think something out of balance in your body; and I'm guessing they''re asking for permission to fix it." She gave him a nudge, "They're yours now. Go and tell them what to do. Go on."

"Uh..ok.." He got to his feet and took a deep breath, "Um..ok..go..go ahead and fix it."

The sphere seemed to snap to attention again, "_AUTHORIZATION ACCEPTED. BEGINNING REPAIRS. INITIATING SHUT DOWN OF ALL NON-VITALS IN 5...4..3..."_

Naruto started panicking, "S-shut down!? What the..?"

Kasumi gulped, "I think their gonna knock you out while they work.."

_"2...1.."_

"HOLD ON! WAIT UP!" They both yelled, but it was too late.

_"HOST SHUT-DOWN ENGAGED." _With that, the nanite, Naruto, even the cavern vanished in an instant. In effect, Naruto had just been put into a nanite-induced coma

"Aw kuso!" Kasumi swore in the darkness, kicking one of the bars in frustration.. She realized she hadn't finished telling him how to let her out.With him out like this, she couldn't even tell what was going on outside, much less talk to him. What really sucked was she had no idea how long it would last. All she could do now was wait.

xxxxxxxx

"Is this everything there was?" Sarutobi asked the ANBU he had sent to the lab. It didn't take them long to return with a few folders, papers, and a recording cassette. The folder carried the words 'Project: Nanosoul' on the label.

"Hai, Hokage-Sama." Tora said, "Everything else had been destroyed, judging by the ashes we found. Even the memory banks on the computers had been wiped."

"Well, it's better than nothing. Dismissed." The second they vanished, he retrieved an old tape player from his desk drawer and popped the tape in while he looked through the files.

The tape held only static for a moment before a voice came on:

_"Day 8, _

_We're making progress. Finally, visible cohesion amog the nanites _("Nanites?" Sarutotobo muttered, shifting more of his attention to the tape.")_ So far we can only group them in upwards of a few grams, but it still shows promise. We've christened the future system "Nanosoul''_

_'Day 21,_

_Today is a milestone in our research! We tested a sample on one of our test rats. It had recently suffered the loss of a leg and couldn't walk as well as an infection in one of its eyes. No sooner did we introduce the sample than it began to work. Within an hour, they had replicated the lost limb, stronger than ever. We even caught it digging the claws into the side of its cage multiple times while trying to climb out. What's more is the rat's health seems to be improving at an impressive rate. The eye has been completely healed with a couple of days, giving system unprecedented medical potential!!"_

"So, this 'Nanosoul' was intended for healing?" the Hokage muttered as he rummaged through the papers. The item in question was described a nanotechnological mass designed to merge itself into severely injured organisms. IE: severe burns, broken bones, missing limbs. However, it also seemed to carry promise of being a weapon since any missing limbs replaced were far stronger than the originals and the nanites were capable of augmenting the hosts natural abilities since they remained in the body permanently.

As far as he could tell, they continued research for as long as possible until they were forced to abandon the lab for some reason, either loss of funding or the threat of an attack. Either way, they left the remaining nanites in containment in the lab. Rather poor containing, he thought, if an 8 year old could let the Nanosoul out. Since he had just lost a limb, apparently it detected the injury somehow and actively went to him to repair the damage.

"I was right, things are definatly not going to be the same." He muttered.

Suddenly one of the shinobi came barging in, "Hokage-Sama! It's Uzumaki, he's fallen into a coma!"

xxxxxxxx

I apologize for the shortness, but you'll be learning more about it in future chapters. Just felt it best to introduce just what Naruto carried now.


	4. Chapter 4

Speech

_Thought_

**Kyuubi**

**DragonMaster4381: ** Don't worry, it's won't be a doujutsu, and he won't be an idiot either.

**GodricGryff: **It'll just let him record the hand signs. He'll still have to work on it.

xxxxxxxx

Kasumi yawned as she got up from her nap, "More dark..." She muttered, getting to her feet and feeling for the bars to her cage.

Judging from her internal clock, close to a month had passed since the nanites had put Naruto in a coma. She was now officially bored and lonely; thankfully she could tell his heart was still beating and such so he was alive at least, she just wished they'd finish.

As if answering her prayers, the cavern began to slowly light up. It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust but when they did, she received something of a surprise. The walls now had a metallic sheen to them and the pipes shone as if they had been freshly chromed. Even the bars on her cell looked like brushed steel.

"Wow.." Was all she could say at the moment.

"Kasumi?" A familiar voice called out, followed by the sound of sloshing water, "How..how long have I been out?"

Kasumi broke into a smile as she watched Naruto step into view, albeit a little wobbly, "Naruto! You're finally awake!" She would've jumped to hug him if not for the bars, "It's been about a month."

"Nani? What'd those things do to me? I feel like I just ran through every street in Konoha." He leaned against the bars to steady himself, giving her a better look. He was now a few inches taller, giving him a more normal height for an 8-year old, and a bit of the baby fat on his cheeks had vanished.

_"Wow, they actualy helped him in a way_." She had to mentally hit herself for suddenly picturing what he'd look like when he got older before watching him steady himself a little.

"That's weird...I'm actually starting to feel a little better." He stretched a bit, popping some joints in the process.

Kasumi smirked, "Accelerated healing due to me being sealed in here. That and the nanites are probably still fixing you up."

"Cool. So..now what?"

"Well, now that you're finally back among the living you could go ahead and let me out so I can start living up to my end of the deal."

"Oh, right." He looked at the seal, "How do I do this?"

"Just do what I do. Don't worry about the chakra, I'll take care of that." She started going through seals slow enough for him to follow, "Tora, Inu, Hebi, Inu, Nezumi..." She kept it up into a forty seal chain. As soon as they reached the last seal she started applying chakra to the seal and called called out, "Put both hands on the seal and call out..."

**"Seal Modifier Jutsu: Body Release!"**

xxxxxxxx

Sarutobi sighed as he headed down the hall to the room Naruto was in. Neither of the Ichirakus had seen him lately which meant he had yet to go there at all and none of the doctors had noticed any changes. It didn't help that the council found out about the nanites and several demanded he be turned over to Danzo for 'conditioning' into a weapon.

BOOM!!

The explosion just about rattled the entire hospital, sending doctors, nurses and a few patients into a panic.

"Oh no..NARUTO!" He yelled, seeing a large hole where the door had been and saw pale red smoke billowing out from it. Without a second thought, he ran inside and stopped dead at the sight.

"Maybe that was too much chakra." Coughed a girl sitting on the now demolished hospital bed. Underneath her was Naruto, who looked like he had been rudely woken up.

"You think!? He muttered, coughing as well. It was then he spotted the gobsmacked Hokage standing where the door was, "Oh, Hi, Ojiji."

"N-Naruto...you're awake..what happened..who's she??" Sarutobi stammered, pointing at Kasumi.

Her ears perked up, "You can see me? That means.." She looked around and let out a squeal of delight, hugging Naruto tightly, "KYAAAA!! We did it! I'm out!"

"Out..? What are you...?" Realization kicked in for Sarutobi who quickly paled when he saw her fox ears and tail , "K-Kyuubi...?!"

"Actually it's Kasumi. Kyuubi's just my title." She gave the old man a slightly annoyed look, "Get a grip. I'm not gonna destroy Konoha, all right? Most of my chakra's still locked away. Besides, I only attacked 'cause I mistook you guys for Kumo."

"Kumo..?" Sarutobi wasn't sure what to feel more; fear that he was face-to-face with the nine-tailed fox or confusion at what she said plus learning that the fox was female.

Kasumi sighed, "The Raikage...hold on." She stuck her fingers in Naruto's ears so he wouldn't hear her. Ignoring his protests, she continued, "He found out my human form and had the gall to think he could take me as one of his personal brothel girls." She looked a little green, "He had to be at least 80, even sent a group of Kumo ANBU to try and intimidate me into submitting. The idea alone pissed me off. I dealt with the ones he sent and made my way to Kumo to personally lay into him. The downside..I was too mad to realize I had gotten my directions screwed up and came here by accident. By the time I realized the guy on Gamabunta was the current Hokage, it was too late and I ended up getting sealed into Naruto."

Sarutobi sweatdropped, the Kyuubi no Kitsune was provoked by a man who though he could bully her into obeying him, "Well..if it helps, there's been a new Raikage for the last couple of years. The previous one was assassinated."

"Can't say I'll cry for that bastard." She muttered, finally giving Naruto back his hearing. "Now, I guess it's on to business. Since it's more or less my fault his life's been crappy, I'm gonna help him train and learn to use those nanites."

"You mean the Nanosoul? Apparently that's what the creators named the mass in the globe. Naruto managed to absorb all that was left of it when their container broke." Sarutobi said, watching the two of them climb off the bed.

Naruto looked at his arm, "Still feels weird knowing I got them in me."

"Don't worry. "Kasumi ruffled his hair, "By the time I'm done, you're gonna be a badass with a capital B.A.D." Her face took on a more serious look as she turned to the Hokage, "However, I'm not going to train him in Konoha."

The two males in the room froze momentarily, "Nani??"

"You heard me. There's too many ignorant pinheads here to deal with before he can handle them himself. And while I'm still strong enough to cause some havoc in this town, we wouldn't get anything done if I spent all my time dealing with the bakas who're still convinced he's me."

The Hokage hated to admit it, but she did have a point. He could count on both hands the only people who didn't see him as a demon or a soon-to-be one anyway, "Very well. Though I do ask this: bring him back in time for the genin exams. I'd like him to at least be teamed up with ones his own age."

"I'm actually leaving the village?" Naruto said. He had never been out of the village boundary in his life.

Kasumi grinned at him, "Don't worry, you'll have me around." For some reason, her grin made him gulp.

xxxxxxxx

The next morning, Naruto and Kasumi walked past the main gates. His arm was wrapped up in bandages and she had used a transformation to hide her ears and tail so they wouldn't daw attention. Everything they felt worth taking from the storage room Naruto called an apartment was in a backpack Kasumi was toting.

"Kasumi, how long do you think we'll be gone?"

"Dunno, kid. May be a while. _Though I will say this place is gonna be in for a surprise when you do get back." _ She chuckled to herself as they exited Konoha.

xxxxxxxx

All right! Final tally on his abilities: shape-shifting arm (weaponry) enhanced physical traits/durability, and last but not least: body armor ( the nanites of the arm flowing over him to make a suit, kinda like Guyver sorta.)


	5. Chapter 5

Speech

_Thought_

**Kyuubi**

**VFSNAKE: ** Maybe something along that line. I'll probably mix and match. Cool video though.

xxxxxxxx

Sarutobi swore generously as his secretary game in and set another stack of paperwork on his desk. At this point he had begun to wonder if he was the victim of someone's sick sense of humor. Granted there was one thing he didn't mind seeing on his desk: the occasional letters from Naruto.

Just about five years had gone by since Kyu...correction, Kasumi, had taken him to train and learn had to use his nanites. He took great pleasure in seeing Danzo act like he was suffering from a Kami-induced bout of constipation from his reply after the man made another 'request' that the boy be turned over to him. The Naruto-hating side were up in arms after learning he had left Konoha with Kasumi, demanding he be brought back and punished for abandoning the village. That went under when Chouza Akamichi, one of the few council members that respected the Fourth's last wish, reminded them that Naruto hadn't even been in the academy yet, and therefore was still a civilian who could leave if he wanted to.

Since then things had been rather quiet in Konoha; minus the usual bellows of Might Gai's "Flames of Youth!' and screams of terror that Anko usually got from whoever she caught being a pervert. Now that he thought about, Konoha was never really quiet to begin with.

Little did he know that the place was about to get a lot less quiet, and the cause was walking into the village that very moment.

xxxxxxxx

"Hey...hey, Izumo! Who's that?" Kotetsu pointed to a pair strolling into the village.

One was a girl who looked to be in her mid-teens, dressed rather simply in shorts, hiking boots, and a t-shirt. What caught the two chunins' attention was her hair and eyes; blood red and bright orange. All that, plus the modest B-cup that seemed to fit her slender frame, equaled into one word for them: hottie. They quickly started into a round of Janken to see who'd go talk to her before Kotetsu caught the arm around her waist.

The arm belonged to the person beside her; although they couldn't tell who it was. The mystery figure was an inch or two shorter than the girl, clad in a tattered and ragged-looking black hooded trenchcoat. It also had on a dark gray mask on, similar to hunter-nins. They watched as the two talked for a moment before the stranger slid the mask to the side and kissed her, though the mask still prevented them from seeing the face. Once they parted, the mystery figure put the mask back on and looked straight over at them. It was then they noticed the golden spiral decorating it.

"Hey, Izumo, Kotetsu! Long time no see, guys!" The stranger called out, the voice obviously male, before the both of them took off, soon making their way across the rooftops.

The two chunins looked at each other for a moment, "How the hell did he know our names??"

xxxxxxxx

"FINALLY!" The hokage exclaimed as he signed the last piece of paper on his desk. The moment his pen left the paper, he tossed it aside and prepared to kick back for a few minutes. He let out a perverted giggle as he took out a small orange book from the bottom drawer and quickly immersed himself in it.

"Don't you think you're a little old for those kinds of books?" A voice suddenly commented from the other side of his desk, effectively scaring the crap out of him.

"IYA!!" Sarutobi shrieked, losing his balance and falling off the chair, causing a fit of laughter to erupt from his unexpected visitor. Scrambling to his feet as fast as possible, he quickly recognized the voice's owner, "Kasumi, you're back. Then that means.."

"Yep!" She wiped her eye and pointed to the window behind him.

Sarutobi turned to see a hooded figure in black crouched on the window. His brow raised at the golden spiral on the newcomer's mask as well as the faint sapphire-colored glow behind the mask's eye holes.

"Aren't you gonna say hi..Ojiji?" The figure said, pulling the mask off.

Sarutobi laughed. Only one person had the nerve to call him that, "Naruto!" He said as his surrogate grandson hopped into the room and the two hugged for the first time in half a decade. Once they finished, Sarutobi backed up to see the changes in the blonde.

He noticed right off the boy's size. Before he left, Naruto was barely three feet high due to malnutrition thanks to villagers bent of seeing him starve; now he and Kasumi were just about equal in height. He had put on a fair amount of muscle too, judging from the way his trench coat hung off him. A pair of steel plates were attached to the shoulders making them look even more broader than they were. The right sleeve was missing, showing that Naruto's arm was completely wrapped in heavy gauze, including his hand and fingers. Sarutobi noted that the coat was closed with a silver fist-sized buckle shaped like a fox's head. _"I bet he has that just to piss people off." _He though, laughing to himself.

All traces of baby fat was gone, leaving a slightly narrow face that was surprisingly fitting for the boy, framed by a head of shoulder length hair, replacing the bedhead mop he once hand. Although it still retained some of its spikyness. His whisker marks were more pronounced now and gave him a feral air. All of it was topped off by the sapphire eyes he was sporting, the glow more noticeable without his mask.

_"This kid is definaly going to turn some heads in this town. He could damn well pass for a teenage Minato." _The Hokage mused before asking him about some of the thing he had learned during his travels.

"The usual, worked on getting myself in shape for starters." He flexed his hand, "Speaking of that, you won't believe this but the nanites in my body have embedded themselves permanently into my systems."

"I take it that's a good thing from your tone."

"You bet! They've amplified nearly everything, my muscles, bones, even my skin is denser. All my natural capabilities; speed, strength, reflexes are boosted, including my senses. I can still get injured like everyone else, it just takes a little bit more effort on my opponent's part. Plus, they actually help speed up the healing I get from Kasumi-hime being sealed in me." He finished with his old goofy grin.

Sarutobi raised an eye, "'Hime?"

"Oh yeah, heh. About that...well..Kasumi and me.." He stopped mid-sentence when she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him against her.

"Me and Naru-kun are an item now." Kasumi purred, nuzzling him, "A lot can happen in five years, Sarutobi. You know that." She chuckled at the elderly shinobi's gobsmacked expression.

"Uh..t-true." The Hokage composed himself, "Anyway, Naruto, you came back just in time." He started writing a note to the academy, "There's one month remaining until the genin exams, so that gives you time to get settled back into town and maybe make a few friends before then." He handed Naruto the paper, "I know you just got back, but I'd like you go ahead and start up. At least it'll let you get your first day of school out of the way. Lunch should be starting so that'll let you get something to eat beforehand."

"Sure, I don't see why not." He tucked it into his pocket, "By the way, Ojiji." He gave the man a mock-glare, "When were you planning to tell me Minato Namikaze, the Fourth, was my dad?"

Sarutobi froze, "Huh-wha? H-How...how'd.." He tried to form a full sentence, not expecting that question at ALL.

Naruto tapped his head, "They helped boost everything, remember? That and once I learned that there were only three male blonds in all of Konoha, and I'm not related to Inochi Yamanaka in any way, it pretty much started coming together." He noticed the Hokage was starting to look like he had disappointed someone, "Ah, it's ok, Ojiji. I can't really blame him. After all, he was only trying to protect the village and was just doing what he felt was his only option left. Besides, I doubt he was the kind of guy to make another family give up their kid."

"So..you don't have a grudge against him?" Sarutobi felt his body almost go boneless when Naruto shook his head.

"Personally, sealing me was kinda playing dirty in my book..buuut, I can't hold it against him either." Kasumi shrugged, "I did start the fight after all."

The old man let a chuckle out, "That's good to hear. Anyway, you better get going, Naruto. If it's all with right with the two of you, I'd like to talk to Kasumi for a few minutes while you do that."

"Sure, why not." She said, kissing Naruto, "Later Naru-kun." She grinned.

He smirked before returning it, "Oh yeah! Before I forget." He opened his coat and extracted a seal scroll, "These three won't be bothering anyone now." Handing the scroll to the Hokage, he put his hood and mask back on before diving out the window.

"What'd he mean by that?" Sarutobi unrolled the scroll and unsealed the heads of three men, one of them had been split nearly in half, "Kami..he's already killed!?"

"Yeah, the Tozugo brothers." Kasumi said the name like it was rancid, "Kishimo, Hitsugi, and Toshi." She spat the names out.

"Tozugo?" Sarutobo had gotten word of their deaths. The three brothers were a B-class trio of rapists and murderers. Even though they were only chunin in skill, they were noted for preferring to gang up on individual victims, especially young girls. From the condition of the heads, they were beaten mercilessly before being executed, "Naruto did this to them??"

She nodded, "Yeah..their actually the first people he's gone after with the intent to kill. Every other time, it was only in self-defense or to protect someone else. Otherwise he just beats them senseless."

"W-when was the first time?" He asked, wishing the boy hadn't been forced to grow up so quickly.

"A couple days after his tenth birthday. We were ambushed by some bandits during a sparring match in the woods. While I was taking care of them, one tried to sneak on me with a hatchet. Naruto saw him and threw the kunai he was using on reflex. By the time I turned, he was falling with the kunai in his throat. I guess he was their boss because seeing a 10-year-old take the guy down sent them scattering."

Kasumi plopped down in the closest chair, "When he realized exactly what he had done..." She sighed and shook her head, "Poor guy was shook up pretty badly for a while after that; nightmares, could barely eat. He admitted the idea of taking someone's life scared him even though he knew that being a ninja meant he'd have to kill sooner or later. It took some work, but I was able to get him to see that there are times you'll have to take a life in order to save another. He took that to heart and made it part of his creed." She grinned after saying that, "In a way, that's part of the reason I ended up falling for him."

"Oh? To be honest, I'm rather courious about that myself. No offense; I'm just wondering what would make the mighty Kyuubi No Kitsune fall for a mortal." Sarutobi leaned foward, eager to hear her reason.

"Well, first off, I'll admit I enjoy a good brawl, but I'm no, repeat, NO bloodthirsty psycho like the Shukaku, ok? I'll kill if I have to, but NOT for fun, so the kills he has made have nothing to do with it, got it??" Seeing the old man nod, she continued, "Anyway, well, he's willing to back up what he says for one thing; he's caring, strong, has a 'never say die' attitude, not afraid to show some affection." A slight blush started creeping up on her cheeks, one that Sarutobi quickly caught, "He's got decent sense of humor, he's no idiot, that's for sure. And..well..I've tried dating a few times in the past, but he's the first guy to do something nice for me without expecting something in return,. That and he's also the first to ever make me blush."

Sarutobi chortled, "As long as you two are happy, I'm not one to complain."

xxxxxxxx

Viola! Ch 5, she is done!

Next time, the chat continues, lunch and meeting the class.


	6. Chapter 6

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu**

**VFSNAKE: **Not to worry, this chapter introduces girl #2.

xxxxxxxx

"What'll it be, Tenten?" Ayame Ichiraku asked as she watched the bun-haired girl

"I'll just have a shrimp ramen" She said, sighing in relief at the blissfull silence surrounding the ramen stand. She had just returned from a misson with her team and was somewhat glad to see her Jounin Sensei, Might Gai head to the Hokage's office to make his report with one of her team mates, Rock Lee, joining him. Her other team mate, Neji Hyuuga, had already went home, leaving her to her own devices. As much as she hated to admit it, she savored the moments when Gai and Lee weren't around. She really didn't have anything against them; Gai treated them all equally and encouraged the trio to do their utmost. Even though his condition prevented him from using anything except Taijutsu, Lee was strong and fiercely loyal. It was just...well, getting them to stop talking about 'The Flames of Youth' was as easy as getting either of them to not wear green spandex.

Neji on the other hand, well, the guy was so quiet sometimes you could be by yourself even when he was still around.

She started to unwrap her chopsticks when she felt someone take the seat beside her. At first she thought nothing of it until she saw Ayame blushing brightly at the newcomer. _"What's with her?" _She thought, following her friend's gaze...

..Only to have her breath hitch in her throat at the boy sitting there; golden spikes framing a face that seemed to have an almost ethereal air to it. Her eyes followed its profile before settling on the faint glow of his left eye. Though, by then he had noticed and faced her way.

"Are you all right?" He asked, raising an eye. It was then she saw his whisker marks, giving him more of a wild look .

"Y-Yeah." She squeaked, trying to fight the blush that threatened to engulf her face, _"Wow, where's Kami been hiding THIS one??"_

"Oi! Ayame! What's gotten into you? The order's ready!" Old man Ichiraku barked to get his daughter's attention.

"Ayame? Wow..I didn't even recognize you!" The stranger laughed, his voice sending a shiver through both girls, "It's me, Naruto."

Ayame quickly snapped out of her trance, "N-Naruto?" Her expression shifted to shock then to a wide grin as she dove across the table, putting the young man in a bear hug, "Naruto! It IS you!" She squealed.

xxxxxxxx

Sarutobi took a long draw on his pipe, "So, how strong would you say he is now?"

Kasumi scratched her chin thoughtfully, "It's hard to say. The improvements have made him hard to hurt, and thanks to me being sealed in him, he has a hefty bit of chakra and endurance. In the strength/speed department alone, I'd hazard a guess that guy in the green spandex is one of the few that could handle him in a straight fistfight."

The Hokage nearly choked on the pipe smoke at that bit of info, "Might Gai?? Kami, what've you been teaching him??" He was almost regretting whatever answer she might give

She shrugged, "Nothing fancy, most of the junk they probably teach at that academy, some chakra excercises. Apparently he didn't want to disappoint me 'cause whenever I gave him something to learn, he worked like mad at it. Even with the regeneration he gets from me AND the nanites, he nearly trained himself into the hospital multiple times." She shook her head, laughing a bit "He's like a sponge on steroids; soaks up everything I gave him. Hell, close to half his jutsus are A or S rank."

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, "A and S!?" Inside he was facing two different reactions. One was constantly asking, "What has she created??" The other was giggling like a lunatic at how the council might react.

"I figured with all the chakra he has, those kind would work pretty good." She replied with a 'seemed like a good idea' expression on her face, "

"I think I'm starting to get too old for this..." He groaned, taking out a bottle of sake to calm his nerves.

"Oh yeah! Before I forget..." Kasumi stood up, "Odds are there's gonna be a few girls here who'll more than likely fall for him." She gave a dismissive wave when Sarutobi tensed slightly, "Calm down. Normally kitsunes don't really like sharing, but in this case I'm willing to make an exception; as long as they like him for the right reasons. However.." The word hung menacingly in the air, "If I find out they're just trying to use him, I promise I will literally put my foot up their ass and leave the boot up there!"

Fighting back a fit of laughter at the image (For reasons even he didn't know, the idea was oddly hilarious), Sarutobi could only give a brief nod. He knew of some women, civilian and kunoichi, who'd probably do the same thing.

"Uh..is..there anything else I should know?" He asked hesitantly. He was still needing time to digest everything she had told him so far.

"Well, he did find out this nifty little trick with his arm, but you'll have to see it for yourself." She said, giving her best 'I know something you don't' smirks, "If that's all, I'm gonna go." When he confirmed that she could leave, she vanished in a plume of crimson smoke just as Gai and Lee came in.

"YOSH!" Gai yelled, "KONOHA'S BEAUTIFUL BEAST HAS RETURNED, HOKAGE-SAMA!"

Sarutobi groaned and downed the rest of the bottle.

.

xxxxxxxx

Tenten had to make sure she wasn't seeing things; the boy beside her had just polished off fifteen bowls of ramen like it was nothing. Since Ayame called out his name during her tackle, she managed to calm down just enough to introduce herself and make small talk with him, although the blush still remained, Ayame included. She was somewhat startled to learn he was heading to his first day at the Academy, since he looked old enough to have already graduated.

"I've been gone from Konoha for a while, just got back today." Naruto explained, "That and the Hokage said it'll help me get to know some others my age." He paid for the meal and slipped the mask back on, "I needed that." He grinned, "Well, I better get going. Later, Ayame, nice meeting you, Ten-Chan!" He called out as he bolted back down the road, too busy thinking about getting to class on time to realize he had left a noticeable impression on the two girls.

**"Heh, I should've known that'd be where you'd eat at." ** Kasumi shook her head once she reappeared back in his seal. Even though she had a body outside now thanks to the altered seal, she still liked to pop back in once in a while. Mainly to be with him without people knowing she was there.

_"What can I say? Those other places I've ate at were all right, but they're nothing compared to Ichiraku's!" _He smiled inwardly, picking up speed to make it in time.

xxxxxxxx

"All right, settle down and let's get back to work." Iruka Umino called out once the students returned from eating. As usual, they ignored him over their own chatter, "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" That time it worked.

"Move, Forehead! I'm sitting by Sasuke-kun!"

"The hell you are, Ino-PIG!"

Well, almost..

Iruka groaned, "Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka! Find a seat already!" He stared at the two as they reluctantly sat down, _"I swear those two think more about boys than they ever do about anything."_

"Ok, let's go back over.." He was interrupted by the door opened and everyone turned their attention to the masked individual that walked in, "Um, can I help you?"

"Hi, I was told to come to this room. You Iruka Umino?" The stranger asked.

"Uh, yes." He looked at the paper that was promptly handed to him, "Signed by the Hokage?" He shrugged and looked to his students, "Class, it seems we have a new student. Say hello to Naruto Uzumaki."

"Yo."

xxxxxxxx

I said girl #2, but you'll have to figure out which one it is. evil laugh

Next chapter'll have a bit more, and some violence.

Next time: Hi, I'm bionic!


	7. Chapter 7

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu/Kasumi**

**Demon Wrath: **Yes...yes it will.

Just so you know, I'm gonna try to keep a little bit of the old Naruto.

xxxxxxxx

The class went deathly quiet as everyone took a moment to study him. Behind his mask, Naruto did the same. He recalled once, during his sixth birthday, he had somehow found his way into the council room while running from the usual angry crowd. As luck would half it, he came in right in the middle of a meeting. He thought of some of the clan heads that were there and used that info to ID some of the people there. _"Looks like there's a kid from all the main shinobi clans here." _ He mused. It was then his nanite-enhanced senses caught the heavy vanilla smell that seemed to emanate from nearly every girl in the room. Thanks to Kasumi and the talk she gave him when he got old enough, he knew right away it was from arousal. A quick sniff indicated a mix of stale and fresh so it had been going on for a while, making him wonder who the hell would get a reaction like that from them

As he pondered that, one of the students, and pretty much the shyest kunoichi in town, Hinata Hyuuga, was racking her brain after Iruka said who the newcomer was. _"N-Naruto?? It..It can't be..he vanished years ago." _ She said to herself, remembering the day she first met him..

She was just around five; her mother had taken her to the park for a while. But while she was there, a boy had knocked her down and stolen the bento ner mother had made for her that day. However, the bully didn't get far before a rock came out of nowhere and struck him in the face, forcing him to drop it. She watched as another boy her age with spiky blond hair and marks on his face sent him toppling over with a shoulder tackle before grabbing the bento up and returning it to her. She started to thank him when her mother came looking for her and the boy made himself scarce. All she managed to get was his name.

Though, over the next couple of years, she managed to spot him once in a while and eventually learned Naruto was a boy that tried to fight for what he believed in and never focused on the negative. It didn't take long for her to develop a crush on the boy, but he disappeared before she could ever tell him how she felt.

"So, why don't you tell us a little bit about you?" Iruka spoke up, breaking Hinata from her thoughts.

_"Think I should take my mask off for this, Kasumi-Chan?" _Naruto asked his girlfriend, not really sure if he wanted a lot of people knowing his face.

**"Well, the old man did say he wanted you to try and make friends. May as well so they can recognize you." **She replied.

He mentally shrugged and pulled it off, causing Hinata to gasp and turn a shade of red that rivaled a cherry.Several other girls started to drool as they stared at him.

_"He's back!" _ She squealed inwardly, _"He's back!"_

"Well, name's Naruto; I just got back from a five year trip so I gotta get used to this town again since a lot's probably changed while I was gone."

As Naruto talked, Kasumi noticed Hinata's blush and began to giggle evilly, **"Oh, this is too good to pass up!" **She said, making sure he didn't hear her, **"Besides, better now than a nasty surprise down the road."** Now, Kasumi was a decent gal in most respects, she just had a somewhat...off-kilter sense of humor at times. The fact she already knew the Hyuuga heiress had feelings for him only made her plan that much more enjoyable.

Before Naruto, or anyone else for that matter, could react, there was a sudden burst of red smoke surrounding him.

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled. He grabbed a nearby kunai and started to charge in, thinking his new student was under attack when the smoke dissipated, revealing a slightly surprised Naruto lip-locked with a girl he had never seen before, "W-Who're you??" Iruka asked, mentally clocking himself for ogling her a bit along with nearly every boy in the room.

"Hi, I'm Kasumi. Don't mind me, just popped in to wish my boyfriend luck." She noticed disappointed looks on several girls and especially the heartbroken one on Hinata. Smirking, she added, "Don't worry, I'm an open-minded girl. I think I can work with sharing him, provided I approve of you of course."

Naruto promptly did a fisheye at her, along with several guys, "NANI??" He blurted out, getting only a wink in return.

Hinata on the other hand started to hyperventilate, turning even redder _"D-Did she say __share__??" _Was all she could think before fainting from what that statement possibly inclined, her head hitting the desk with a 'clunk!'.

"Kasumi, the heck...??" He said, only to get another grin before she vanished again, "Kami.." He muttered at the looks of burning jealousy some of the guys were giving him, _"So much for a peaceful first day back." _

xxxxxxxx

"Checkmate." Shikamaru Nara said with a lazy grin while Naruto's head fell.

"Damn, that's the 6th time today." The blond said as he watched the other boy reset the Shogi board. Half the month had passed and he had settled in moderately well. He tended to get along with guys like him, Chouji Ankamichi, and Shino Aburame. Shino was surprised when Naruto's only reaction to learning about his insects was to simply say, "Cool."

Kiba Inuzuka, however, seemed more occupied with begging Naruto to tell him how he managed to find a girl like Kasumi, and if she had a sister; much to his exasperation.

The only major downside was one Sasuke Uchiha, the top-ranked rookie. (and, the blong cyborg learned shortly after his arrival, was the reason for the heavy vanilla smell in the room.) Naruto had gotten word that his older brother wiped out the entire clan for some reason, leaving just him. Half the school's female populous thought he was their dream man and a fair number of villagers looked at him like some kind of royalty. The resultant kowtowing plus the seemingly broody nature he already had made him about as pleasant to be around as a rusty pipe, especially after last week when Iruka took them out for physical exercises.

**Flashback**

**xxxxxxxx**

Naruto looked over at the 'firing' range, noticing a handful of straw dummies set up about 20 feet away. He watched Iruka look at his clip board and start calling out names.

Most of the students were rather average, getting about 6 or 7 hits, a few getting about 8.

"Hinata Hyuuga."

Naruto gave the shy girl a thumbs up. In all honesty, he liked her, though at first he didn't recognize her. She was a bit more quiet then he was used to, but she was pretty nice once he got to know her; a far cry from the usual image her clan gave, that her blush was kind of cute. She managed a 9 out of 10.

"Nice job, Hina-chan." He said, patting her shoulder and quickly tensing a bit at the laugh in his mind, courtesy of Kasumi.

**"Admit it, you're starting to like my little suggestion, Naruto-kun."**

_"Oh hush. That's a pervert's dream. I'm not a pervert and you know it."_

**"Riiiight." **Kasumi snickered

He ignored her and looked over when Sasuke Uchiha was called, causing several girls to start cheering for him. He noted two members of his fanclub that he noted were more or less the self-appointed leaders, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, were without a doubt the loudest. Chouji had told him the two girls were once best friends but ended it after learning they both liked the guy.

"Perfect ten. Excellent job, Sasuke." Iruka said, "Ok, next up, Naruto Uzumaki."

Picking one in front of a tree he took hold of the bandages on his arm, "Iruka-Sensei, is it ok if I tried a move I've been working on? It's ranged but not quite a jutsu."

"Well..I guess just this once couldn't hurt." The man said.

Naruto focused on his target and grabbed hold of his bandages, pulling them off in one motion and earning several gasps as his exposed arm glinted in the sunlight.

"Naruto no Baka! We're not supposed to use Bloodlines in this!" Sakura hollered, making him, Kiba and Akamaru wince at the volume.

"Wanna try a little louder, Sakura? I don't think the Tsuchikage heard you!" He retorted, "Besides, this isn't a Bloodline because it's not the arm I was born with."

"What do you mean not the one you were born with?" Ino asked. She may've been a Sasuke fangirl, but at least she was a bit more civil than Sakura

"I lost my right arm when I was 8." He pointed his fist at the dummy, "This one is artificial. It's a long story I don't really wanna tell right now." Everyone watched as a faint coil of chakra began to wind around the metal and concentrated into his palm, "5 maximum output." He whispered, closing his hand slightly over the glowing mass. The second it finished accumulating, he drew back and sent a bolt of pure chakra rocketing towards the dummy that obliterated the top half on impact, "Sweet, that's a good 4 seconds faster now."

"HOLY SHIT! What the hell was that!?" Kiba blurted out before getting bopped by Ino for cussing.

"That was the **Chakra Buster**." Naruto blew off the smoke coming from his hand, "I've been perfecting it for a couple of years. It started out as a control exercise to help me get used to using jutsus with my new arm and kinda took off from there. Packs a pretty good wallop, too"

Iruka shook his head, "Well, I must admit, it certainly looks impressive. Ok, all right, those of you who've already finished, meet up at the sparring ring."

Naruto started towards the ring when a voice called out, "Oi, Uzumaki! Teach me that move!"

He turned towards the source, "Excuse me?" He responded with a hint of annoyance, already knowing who said it. Now, he wouldn't have minded except it was said in the manner of an officer commanding one of his subordinates.

Sasuke strode over, half-glaring at the blond, with Sakura and Ino hot on his heels, "I said teach me that move!"

He looked the dark-haired boy in the face. Among some of the things Kasumi had taught him was how to read a person's body language, and right now it was obvious the kid was a mix of being annoyed at him and making an attempt to intimidate him as well. Something he was failing superbly at.

"Ah. No." Came the blond's reply as he turned back around.

"Naruto! Don't you dare turn your back on Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura snapped. Naruto simply ignored her

"I said teach it!" The brooding youth growled, grabbing his shoulder, "I'm an Uchiha and you'll do as I say!"

In a flash, Naruto grabbed his wrist and twisted it, making Sasuke gasp in pain. "And I won't for three good reasons. One was your little display of pompous asshattery just now. Two is the fact I won't teach any of my abilities to someone who thinks they can just demand something from somebody; and three; you have a piss-poor attitude and I just don't like it." He released the boy's arm and resumed his way to the sparring area.

"You baka! How dare you hurt my Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura yelled, taking a swing at the back of his head; only to hit air as he performed something akin to a pirouette in mid-stride and letting his head roll away just out of reach.

Letting those two fume, he arrvied in time to see Hinata and Shikamaru get called to spar. Thier match, if you can call it one, ended with the lazy Nara forfeting to go back to sleep.

Shino won his match when his bugs chased a screaming Sakura out of the ring, much to Naruto's amusement. Kiba and Ino were next, though that ended with Kiba running from a VERY angry Ino after Akamaru whizzed on her foot. Chouji's opponent made the mistake of calling him 'fat' and received a prompt body slam from the heavyset boy.

Finally, it was his turn against an angry Sasuke. As if on cue, his fanclub started cheering for him and throwing insults and threats at Naruto after the learned he had twisted their crush's arm.

"You got lucky earlier, dobe." The boy sneered, "When I'm done with you, you'll be begging me to learn what you know."

**"Is this kid serious?" **Kasumi sweatdropped, popping out to watch the fight from nearby. Thankfully, she had shown up enough over the week for the students to get used to her sudden arrivals, including Iruka. Since she simply acted as a spectator, no fault was found with her being there.

_"Unfortunately, I think so." _ Naruto replied, quickly stepping back to avoid a kick. Once Sasuke pulled his leg back, the blonde vanished from sight.

"Where did he go?" He muttered. His answer came in the form of a getting the back of his head slapped. Growling, the Uchiha whipped his fist around, hitting air yet again and earning another slap to the head.

"You just don't get it, do you? I'm not gonna tell you anything, so give it a rest." Naruto said, ducking a fist.

"Stand still, damn you!" Sasuke snapped, swinging wildly now. After a minute he stopped to catch his breath and suddenly took on an evil smirk, "If you won't tell me, then maybe your little whore will, after I take her for myself."

"THAT LITTLE SHIT DID NOT JUST SAY THAT!!"Kasumi roared, making everyone nearby, even Shino, jump from her tone.. She was about to rip into him herself when she felt the temperature drop drastically, indicating her container was pissed. _**"**__The hell? I haven't felt Naruto this mad since...ooh, that prick's in trouble..."_

Everyone outside felt it as well, especially Sasuke.

"What the...?" Was all he could get out before an angry Naruto appeared right in front of him. He didn't even have time to sneer before a knee introduced itself into his gut, knocking the wind out of him.

"Don't.." Naruto growled, drawing his fist back.

"You.." Sasuke's head snapped to the side as a left hook connected

"EVER.." Naruto whirled around, bringing his leg out and catching the boy across the chest, sending him down hard to the ground; the impact was enough to crack the stone floor of the ring.. End result: one Uchiha, knocked the &# OUT.

"Call Kasumi that, you miserable son of a bitch!" Naruto growled amist the throng of cheers from the boys and terrified screams of 'SASUKE-KUN!"

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka said. He knew he should reprimand Naruto for being somewhat brutal in a spar, but Sasuke brought it on himself. You just don't call a guy's girlfriend something like that. Especially right to the guy's face.

**Flashback End**

**xxxxxxxx**

Took a while, but here's ch7. If anyone has a better name for 'chakra buster' feel free to say. That was the first thing that came to mind, heh.


	8. Chapter 8

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu/Kasumi**

**Note: **Ok, Primal Chaos gave me an idea; I'll keep it as 'Chakra Buster' for now, the upgraded version'll be revealed during the chunin exams

xxxxxxxx

"Oh! Naru-kun, you bad boy.." Kasumi purred as Naruto stroked her tail during their most recent make out session in the apartment Sarutobi had given them. Of course, the blonde refused to go any farther than 3rd base until he was older, much to her constant chagrin, "Come on, Naru-kun.." She whimpered, giving him puppy-dog eyes, "Just this once until then..Please??"

"Kasumi, I told you; I already swore I'd wait till I was at least 15 before that. And you of all people know I won't break my word no matter what." Naruto said before noticing her pout, "Don't worry. That's only two more years. Besides," He kissed her deeply, making her moan softly, "You know you're going to be my first when the time does come."

Kasumi smiled, tracing the area where metal met flesh on the young man's shoulder. "I know, just wish it'd hurry. I want you to be my first as well." She refused to let anyone aside from Naruto know, but the Kyuubi no Kitsune herself was a virgin, though she considered the term moot since she had already promised it to him.

The two closed in for another kiss when they both caught sight of a female jounin looking in at them in their underwear through the bedroom window. Kasumi scowled as she saw the slight nosebleed the ninja had while she looked at Naruto. She might not have minded if it was a gal she knew and didn't mind, but she had no idea who the chick was and therefore didn't like it at all.

"Didn't your parents teach you not to be a peeping tom?!" Naruto snapped, pulling the blanket up higher on the both of them.

The kunoichi, a recently promoted rookie, nearly fell off the sill from the malevolent glare the redhead was sending straight at her, "Uh..K-Kasumi-san, the Hokage and Council is requesting your presence. Uzu..Uzumaki-San..I..I believe you're late for finals at the academy." She made herself scarce as soon as she finished with the message.

"Kuso! She's right." Naruto grumbled as he looked at the clock. The two cursed silently as they got dressed, "Dunno why they wanna see me, but hopefully it won't be long." She gave him a quick peck on the nose before making her way to the tower while he went to school.

xxxxxxxx

"Naruto! You're over three hours late!" Iruka hollered the moment the blond entered the room, "I hope you have a good..is that a hickey!?" He pointed at the purple mark on Naruto's neck.

"Oh, heh..you see.." Naruto started

Iruka shook his head, "Nevermind, I don't think I wanna know." he said over the catcalls of the guys and Sakura's screaming that Naruto was a pervert.

Hinata, on the other hand, was busy wondering how Kasumi had managed to do it, knowing Naruto was able to heal faster than normal, and if she'd teach her how

You heard right; Naruto didn't know it, but lately Kasumi had taken it upon herself to help Hiashi Hyuuga's eldest daughter out of her shell. At first, she nearly went into a coma when Kasumi told her she knew about her feelings for him.

She followed through though after she said she'd share him with her; of course she'd have to make the first move. The two soon became friends and Kasumi proceeded with helping the girl become more relaxed. So far she still blushed some around Naruto, but she was able to stay awake at least.

Naruto took a seat beside her, "Hey Hinara. So, today's the day, huh?"

"H-Hello, Naruto." She replied, blushing her usual intensity "Hai, to be honest..I'm a..a little nervous."

"Ah, don't worry, Hina. I've seen you in action. I'm sure you'll pass with flying colors."

"All right!" Iruka called out, "Now that we're all here, we'll be calling you one by one into the back room for the exam. First up..."

xxxxxxxx

"What the heck would they want with me?" Kasumi asked as she followed Sarutobi to the council chamber, "Hell, I'm not even a citizen of Konoha, much less a shinobi."

"Good question. To be honest, sometimes I find myself wondering what they've been smoking." He said, opening the door to let her in.

"Ok, I'm here. I hope you guys got a damn good reason for dragging me here. Was having a really enjoyable morning." She said, ignoring a couple of mutters about 'such insolence!' and 'no respect'.

"Yes..Kasumi, was it?." Koharu spoke up, "Is there a last name?"

"No, it's just Kasumi."

It was then that Tsume Inuzuka said the one thing the rest of the clan heads were thinking, "Oh crap.." She leaned over to Shikaku Nara, "She's the gal our kids said was with Naruto, isn't she?"

"Tch..this just got even more troublesome.." Shikaku muttered.

"Well, you'll be pleased to know that a very eligible bachelor of Konoha has set his eyes on you." Koharu continued.

Kasumi raised an eye, "Exsqueeze me? What are you talking about?" She didn't like where this was going.

"The last of the Uchihas, Sasuke, has invoked restoration rights for his clan. He has set his sights on you to be his first bride, congratulations!" Homura said, beaming at her.

"Is this some kind of joke you guys thought up?" Kasumi growled, "If so, it's not funny at all."

"We are not. When Sasuke-Dono turns 16, you will become Kasumi Uchiha."

Sarutobi nearly fell over, "You've got to be kidding me.."

"HELL NO! Uh-uh, There's no way on Kami's green earth I'm hooking up with that arrogant little asshole!" She snapped, baring her fangs at the elderly pair,

"You're insane!" A council member protested, "You should be honored to be chosen by such an esteemed member of our village!"

"I don't give a damn! I'm with Naruto." She answered, "Besides, even if I wasn't, I'd bust Broody's head open before I'd go out with him!"

Hiashi grinned. His duties to the clan hid it, but he held women in high respect when they weren't afraid to speak their mind, "So, you're the one that's been helping Hinata try to break her shell. I must say, I'm grateful to you for making the effort, I've seen her acting noticeably less...well, introverted lately."

"She seems like a nice girl." Kasumi shrugged.

"Naruto..? The Uzumaki brat?! Preposterous! That _thing_ has no business having a mate! The honorable Sasuke Uchiha has chosen you and you WILL be his bride!" The member banged his hand on the table.

Kasumi looked at the Hokage, "Can I break that bastard's leg in a few places?? Nobody talks like that about MY Naruto-kun and gets away with it!" Part of her wanted to hurt the guy regardless of what the old man said, but she didn't really want to deal with the side effects of that choice.

"As tempting as that is, I'm afraid I'll have to deny you that, Kasumi." Sarutobi said before glaring at the offender, "Councilman Gyasho, are you simply having an off day or are you just now showing us that you've ALWAYS been this big of an idiot?"

"H-Hokage-Sama?" The man spluttered.

"Unless your ears are plugged up, you heard Kasumi just state that she is dating Naruto. Plus her reaction to your announcement is a fair indicator that she doesn't even like Sasuke. Now, she may not be a shinobi, but I have reliable proof that she's strong enough to take down a fair number of the people in this room if given reason to. If you continue this idiotic endeavor, this will constitute harassment and she will have my full permission to, as the saying goes, "get medieval on your asses". Do you understand?" His tone let them all know he wasn't joking. As soon as the man nodded, he continued, "Now, regarding your comment earlier, Chouza, would you please?"

"By all means, Hokage-Sama ." Chouji's dad grinned before bringing a meaty fist down on the man's head, causing him to crumple like a house of cards, "I never did like him anyway."

"Not as satisfying as putting him in traction, but it'll do." She said.

"Kasumi, " Shibi Aburame piped up, "On behalf of the other clan heads, I'd like to apologize for dragging you out here."

"Yeah," Inochi Yamanaka rubbed his head sheepishly, "The way the Uchiha was describing you, he made it sound like you were head over heels for him. Claiming you 'wanted him badly'."

Kasumi felt like gagging a bit at that, "It's all right, at least you guys are apologizing. I'll give the bastard a piece if my mind later." She said, cracking her knuckles.

"All right, that's enough. Kasumi, you can leave now." Sarutobi said, holding up a hand to silence his former teammates when they started to protest.

"Heh, I like her." Tsume commented as she left.

xxxxxxxx

"Why do fangirls always feel the need to cheer at every little thing the broody bastard does?" Naruto muttered as the mentioned boy strutted out of the room to cheers by his groupies, wearing a Konoha headband.

"'Cause women are troublesome." Shikamaru grumbled, annoyed at his nap being interrupted again.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka called out, "You're next."

"Let's see you even try the first move, loser." The Uchiha sneered, deliberately elbowing his way past the blonde.

Naruto simply flipped him off, "What's the matter, Captain Emo? Your period starting early or something?"

Hinata blushed and forced down a giggle while Kiba nearly peed himself laughing over the scream of outrage from the 'Sasuke Fanclub'

He headed into the back room, fighting back a glare as he spotted Mizuki, Iruka's assistant. He couldn't explain it, but he did not like the man for some reason. For a moment, he was sure he saw the white-haired chunin sneer at him slightly.

The substitution and transforming parts went off without a hitch, then came the last phase of the exam. Iruka ticked off an item on his clipboard, "Ok Naruto, perform the Clone Jutsu."

"Damn! Sorry, Iruka-Sensei..I can't make regular clones." Naruto shrugged, "They always come out looking dead."

The Chunin sighed, "Well, I'm sorry, Naruto, but I'm afraid you f.."

"Hold up, does it have to be a **regular **one? I know a different version."

Iruka and Mizuki raised their eyebrows, "Well, it's not specified that normal clones have to be created, but what do you mean...?"

"**Shadow Clone Jutsu!" **When the resulting smoke cleared, Iruka was surrounded by two dozen Narutos, "Do we still fail, Iruka-Sensei?"

xxxxxxxx

I'll admit, this was sorta Kasumi's chaper. You'll get to see what she does to Sasuke in the next one.


	9. Chapter 9

Speech

_Thought_

xxxxxxxx

"N-Nicely done, Naruto. You pass." Iruka said as the clones vanished. He handed the blond a headband and watched the boy leave while tying the band around his neck.

Mizuki, however was less than thrilled, _"How the hell did the demon brat pass!? Dammit, now I'll have to get the scroll myself." _ He muttered to himself. Unfortunately for the chunin, his attempt later that night ended with him on the receiving end of a can of Sarutobi-style whoopass. Doctors would spend the next few weeks trying to remove the Hokake's boot from his colon.

Naruto, on the other hand, was dealing with a vastly different problem: he had forgotten to put his mask back on before leaving class, resulting in girls from other classes, who by some unforeseen twist of fortune weren't Sasuke fangirls, staring at him with stars in their eyes and a liberal amount of drool.

He started to make his way back home when he was rudely stopped by a smug-looking Sasuke. The blond felt a headache coming on, "What do you want, Teme?"

"You better enjoy having that headband, loser, because after today it'll be ALL you have." The raven-haired boy sneered.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto muttered, wishing the brooder would get out of his way.

The Uchiha's sneer became more pronounced as he made an obvious attempt to look down his nose at the other boy, "The council is making your woman mine. I'll make her know her place. By the time I'm done with her, she'll be begging for me to do whatever I..." He was cut off by the sound of bandages snapping followed by a serrated blade appearing at his throat. He followed it and tensed when he saw it ending at Naruto's elbow; his entire hand and forearm had transformed somehow.

"Care to repeat that?" Naruto growled, pressing the tip against the underside of his nose.

"Naruto Uzumaki! You stop that right now!" Yelled out Kasumi as she came storming up to them, a bit of killing intent leaking off her with every step.

"Heh, looks like they got through to her." Sasuke gloated, only to get slammed to the ground with a foot in the middle of his back.

"If anyone's gonna kick this bastard's ass, it's gonna be ME!" She growled, hoisting the boy up by the scruff of his neck.

Sasuke was a mix of rage and shock. This girl was supposed to be submitting herself to him like the council said! "Unhand me, woman! Know your place!"

"Do us all a favor and SHUT THE HELL UP!" She responded, spiking him into the ground like a football, "Listen up, you self-absorbed dingle-berry!" She hissed, lugging him back up again, "I don't give a damn if you're the last of the '_royal Uchihas', _as far as I'M concerned, you're nothing but a whiny, stuck-up little douchebag who things he deserves the world on a gilded platter!!"

Another spike, "NEWSFLASH! Most of the idiots in this village may kiss your ass, but I'm gonna be someone who KICKS it!" Naruto watched as she cocked her fist back and applied a vicious left cross into Sasuke's face, sending the boy sailing back a few feet.

The Uchiha grimaced in pain as he crawled to his feet, holding his throbbing jaw, "'Oo'll 'eget 'at!" He yelled before hobbling off to get medical attention.

"Wow..that was a side of you I haven't seen in a while." Naruto said, standing beside her.

"He should just be happy I took out most of my frustration on a couple doors on my way here." Kasumi dusted her hands off when she suddenly raised her eyebrows, "Naruto, is that your hand?"

"Sorry." He quickly adjusted his stance when she semi-glared at him. He refused to associate himself with perverts, but even he wasn't above groping his girlfriend on occasion. This however, didn't seem to be one of those times.

"I suggest you put that hand back where it was."

xxxxxxxx

How do you like my first Omake chapter? I'm gonna try to have them keeping up with the flow of the story. Though I'll try to put some at the end of chapters themselves.

Forgot to add this from earlier:

1) Zabuza: Live or Die?

2) If Live: Join Konoha?

3) Haku: Boy or Girl? (with Naruto if a she)

4) If Boy Haku: Hook him up with Yugito or Ino? (the other hooks up with Naruto)

5): Nibi: one of Naruto's girls? (Kasumi teaches Yugito how to let her out. Plus Nibi'll be a pervert)

You only have until the wave arc to make your picks.


	10. Chapter 10

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu/Kasumi**

xxxxxxxx

The class was in an uproar when word of the beatdown Kasumi gave the Uchiha got to the students. With the exception of him, every boy in the class gave her a standing ovation. Hinata had to hide her grin; she disliked him on principal, as far as she was concerned the boy was as arrogant and self-serving as her clan's elders, not counting her father.

Sakura, on the other hand, was absolutely livid. She immediately took it upon herself to pummel Kasumi for halfway maiming her 'precious Sasuke-kun' and Naruto simply for being her boyfriend, along with several other of the brooder's hardcore followers.

"I swear, if she worked as hard at being a ninja as she does trying to get the Emo's attention, she'd be pretty damn scary." Naruto muttered to Shino as he watch the pink-haired girl plow her way through half of the fanclub to get the only seat beside her crush.

"Quite." The stoic Aburame responded.

**"Kinda sad, really. Aside from Hinata, that Yamanaka girl seems to be the only one that actually makes an effort to be a kunoichi. The rest look like they enrolled just to be around the Uchiha." **Kasumi commented in mild disgust.

"Settle down, all of you!" Iruka yelled, getting their attention, "Ok, it's time to announce your genin teams. Listen up as I call out your names and the Jounin who'll be training you." He began going down the list. Naruto decided to let his mind wander until he heard, "Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno.."

He was rudely interrupted by a shriek of "CHA! TAKE THAT, INO-PIG! TRUE LOVE CONQUERS ALL!" (If you can't guess who, you should be beaten silly with a fresh tuna)

"I pity the poor bastard that gets stuck with those two." Naruto said, getting a faint nod of agreement from Shino before...

"..And Naruto Uzumaki"

"Nani?!" Naruto yelped, "Aw, come on Iruka-Sensei! What'd I do to you to get put on a team with those mental cases??" He whimpered, getting glares from said 'cases'.

Iruka chuckled, although he did feel a little bad for putting him with those two; Sakura was top in class when it came to book smarts, but she forsook everything else to try and impress the dark-haired boy. And Naruto and Sasuke just didn't like each other at all, "I'm sorry, Naruto. Your test scores are impressive, but you've only been here a month. Unfortunately that isn't enough time to properly test you." He said with an honestly regretful tone, "Your Jounin sensei is Kakashi Hatake."

(other teams are canon)

"Well, your senseis will be here shortly. All I can say is good luck with your teams." With that, Iruka left the room and a few minutes later the joinins arrived and gathered up their respective teams. For some reason, Team 8's sensei, a kunoichi named Kurenai Yuuhi, felt the need to stare at him like he was a ghost for a few minutes until her team nudged her out the door.

It wasn't long before Team 7 was the only one left..and they were STILL there two hours later.

"WHERE IS THIS GUY!?" Sakura yelled, visibly miffed. After a few more minutes of their sensei being a no-show, she went back to trying to flirt with Sasuke.

As if finally giving her an answer, the door opened to reveal a white-haired man with a mask covering half his face and his headband pulled down over his left eye. The uncovered one looked at the three of them in a rather lazy fashion.

"My first impression of you is...you're all kinda weird." He said, getting the stink eye from the pink-haired kunoichi, "Meet me on the roof in five minutes With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black." Naruto said as he went upstairs, Sasuke and Sakura right behind him.

xxxxxxxx

"All right." Kakashi piped up once they were all together, "Why don't we get to know each other as a team? Who wants to go first?"

"Why don't you start us off, Sensei?" Sakura asked, trying to make a good impression.

Kakashi shrugged, "Name's Kakashi Hatake. I have likes and dislikes. My hobbies are my own and my dream is nothing for you to be concerned with."

_"All he told us was his name.." _The three genins thought in annoyance.

"Ok, you next broody-boy." Kakashi pointed at Sasuke, earning a glare.

"Sasuke Uchiha. I have few likes and many dislikes. I have no hobbies, and my ambition is to kill a certain man and restore my clan to its proper glory." The boy said, barely moving a muscle as Sakura squealed over how cool he was.

"COUGHEMOCOUGH" Naruto muttered.

"_Great, an 'avenger'. Kami..." _He pointed at Sakura, "Your turn pinky."

Sakura shot him a dirty look before started, "I'm Sakura Haruno..." With the exception of shouting that she disliked Naruto and Ino, everything else mostly involved looking towards Sasuke then blushing and squealing.

"Fangirl.." Kakashi and Naruto sighed in unison.

"All right, your turn, Mask" The jounin looked at Naruto, his uncovered eye widening in shock as the blond pulled off his mask, "_The hell..? He looks just like Minato-Sensei! Well..minus the whisker marks.."_

"Name's Naruto Uzumaki. Likes..well, a good fight, especially one that I happen to be involved in, ramen, my girlfriend, Kasumi, making out with said girlfriend. Dislikes: stuck-up emos and their fangirls, dumbasses who hate others for something the person has no control over, and idiots who think they have a right to lord over others. My hobbies are cooking, gardening, training..oh, and beating the crap out of people who deserve it. My dream..I'm still trying to make up my mind on that, but I'll pick one sooner or later." He finished with his usual grin.

_"Well, at least he seems normal, more or less." _Kakashi thought before clearing his throat, "Well, now that we're done with introductions. I expect to see you all bright and early tomorrow for your final test."

"But we already took the finals!" Sakura protested

The one-eyed jounin grinned, "That was simply to sort out those who really wanted to become ninja. The one I'M going to give will see if you can actually BE shinobi. Meet at Training Ground 7 at 8 sharp. Oh, and I'd advise against eating breakfast unless you want it coming back up. Bye" He vanished again, leaving the three alone.

No sooner did he leave than Kasumi appeared out of nowhere, making Sakura scream in fright and Sasuke glare at her hatefully, "Now that we have the rest of the day open.." She grinned as she wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck, "You're buying me some dango, Naruto-kun."

The other two could only watch as she lept off the side with boyfriend in tow.

"At least that baka's gone. Sasuke-kun, you wanna go...?" Sakura turned only to find her crush had left as well, "Sasuke-kun?"

xxxxxxxx

looking at the polls Wow!..well..it appears that in a landslide..(Hell, the whole damn mountain imploded!) Nibi and femHaku will be in the harem. I decided to make Nibi's name Rika.


	11. Chapter 11

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu**

**Darkest Melody: **Actualy, Yugito has the Nibi sealed in her if I remember, like Gaara and Naruto. In the Manga, she died after Akatsuki removed it.

From a couple of the reviews, I'll admit, the last chapter probably could have gone a little bit better, but I write as the story comes to me. Only way I can write w/o driving myself nuts.

xxxxxxxx

"WHERE THE HELL ARE THOSE TWO!?" Sakura bellowed as she stormed around the three wooden posts of Training Ground 7. She and Sasuke had arrived on time, but their sensei was once again 2 hours late. To add to the annoyance, their third team member was also nowhere to be found, "Of all the irresponsible..RAH!" She growled, flailing her arms a bit.

Meanwhile, Sasuke watched her with a bit of annoyance, although he too wished their sensei would hurry so they could get started.

"Ha! See, I told you. If that guy was this late yesterday, then odds are he'd be just as late today!" A cheery voice called out from the other side of the fence surrounding the training ground, a voice that made both of them scowl. They wheeled around to see Naruto jogging onto the grounds with Kasumi riding piggyback

"True, but that doesn't mean we have to, Kasumi-Chan, even if it's to stop for breakfast." The blond responded.

Sakura pointed a finger at them, "Naruto, you baka! You have any idea how late you are!? And what was that about 'breakfast! Kakashi-Sensei said NOT to eat anything! And why the hell is SHE here!?"

"Correction, he RECOMMENDED not eating. As for being late; since I'm here before him, technicaly I'm not since we can't really do anything concerning the test until he does get here." He jerked a thumb towards Kasumi, "Let's just say she's good at negotiating. She probably would have followed anyway so she could watch."

"Aw, you know you like it when I 'negotiate' with you, Naru-Kun. Especially late at night." She purred in a seductive tone right by his ear, sending a shudder through the boy while she laughed inwardly at the shocked look on the sudden blush on the kunoichi as well as the normally broody Sasuke looking slightly surprised.

"Hentai.." Naruto muttered to her with a grin. Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder how everyone would react if they learned the mighty nine-tailed fox that attacked all those years ago and the perverted girl on his back were one and the same.

A few minutes later, Kakashi arrive in a puff of smoke, "Yo."

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yelled, glaring at the man.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life."

"LIAR!"

Naruto sighed and gave him a thumbs-down, "Lame, Kakashi-Sensei."

Sasuke simply snorted.

Kakashi cleared this throat before spotting Kasumi, who was sitting on one of the posts, "Excuse me..who are you?" He started wondering why the hell he didn't notice she presence earlier.

"That's my girlfriend, Kasumi, Kakashi-Sensei. Don't worry, she's just here to watch." Naruto said.

Kasumi grinned. "Don't worry about me, you won't even know I'm around." She said before suddenly blurring out of sight

Kakashi's eye widened slightly, "_She's fast! Something tells me I shouldn't take her lightly. _Anyway, I'm going to tell you about your final test." He took out a pair of small bells and a clock, "Your task is to retrieve these bells. You can use any weapons at your disposal, but you will have to come at me with the intent to kill. If you fail to retrieve a bell, you fail the test and will be sent back to the academy."

"But there are only two bells." Sakura pointed out.

"Which means only two of you will have a chance to pass. So it's every nin for himself." Kakashi gave an eye smile, "The odd one out will not only fail, but be tied to one of these posts and watch as the others have lunch." He wound the clock up and set it atop a post, "You have until noon to accomplish this task Backing up a bit, he watched the three stand, "Ready, and..begin!"

Sasuke and Sakura bolted off into the trees, leaving behind Naruto, who was twirling a kunai between his fingers.

The cyclopian jounin cocked his head to the side, "You know the test has started, right?"

THUNK!

Naruto drove the blade handle-deep into a post, "Yeah, but I don't wanna ruin my coat." He said as he removed the tattered garment, using the kunai for a makeshift hanger.

Now, Sakura Haruno was an adamant admirer of the Uchiha; adamant to the point she considered any action against him, verbal or physical, punishable by extreme violence. That was common knowledge. However, unknown to others, she was constantly at odds with Inner Sakura; an entity who, you could say, was more tolerant than O.S. (Outer Sakura). 'Tolerant' in the fact that she wasn't all that fond of the girl's choice in guys as well as berating her more than once for tossing aside a perfectly good friendship with Ino to pursue a boy who won't even react to all the girls throwing themselves at him.

At that moment, while Naruto was removing his coat, she was trying to ignore O.S's grumbling about 'bakas' and finding 'her Sasuke-kun' when she caught sight of the blond putting the coat up. Then she saw what was under it; naruto had on what looked like a pale grey long sleeved martial arts shirt, the front half open to show the mesh shirt underneath, his left hand had a fingerless leather glove with a metal plate on the back. Below that was a pair of shinobi pants dotted with pockets and a pair throwing knives holstered at his left knee. A pair of shinobi sandals finished the outfit. However, the outfit wasn't quite what caught I.S's attention; it was the fact said outfit was somewhat...form-fitting on the young ninja, showing a fair bit of muscle through the fabric.

**"HELLOO NINJA!" **I.S drooled at the sight, **"You idiot! Ditch the emo prick! All he ever does is brood and scowl at everyone! Naruto's got a hell of a lot nicer disposition..and other aspects too. Hehehe..." **She added in a slightly perverted manner

Sadly, Inner Sakura's call fell of deaf ears as Outer turned to search for the Uchiha.

"You ready, Sensei?" Naruto called out as he lowered into a fighting stance, "You did say to come at you with the intent to kill, right?"

"That's right." Kakashi nodded, _"So he's going to try and come at me head on, huh? Guess I'll have to show him the hard way that's not a smart move." _He thought, reaching around into a pouch. As he did, however, he saw Naruto doing the same. A flick of the wrist later, both were holding a pair of books, except while Kakashi's was orange and looked slightly worn as if it had been read several times, Naruto's was a light red, almost pink color, and still shrink-wrapped.

The man's eye nearly bugged out of it's socket when he saw the book, "N-Naruto! Is that what I think it is??"

"Mmm-hm. 'Icha-Icha Yuri Collection.' " Naruto had to suppress a laugh when Kakashi let his own book fall, "Actually, Kasumi gave it to me on my birthday. I haven't really had the nerve to open it yet, though." A smirk crossed Naruto's face, "Tell ya what, Kakashi-Sensei. Let me have a bell and you can be the first to read this one. This team's pretty much failed anyway since I seriously doubt those other two are going to be willing to work with me."

Kakashi was almost ready to tackle the boy for that book when his last sentence stopped him dead in his tracks, _"Has he figured out the real meaning? _Oh? And what makes you say that?"

"Come on, man. What are the odds of three genin, who've been out of the academy less than 24 hours no less, beating a jounin one-on-one? And the fact that I know from personal experience that teams never have less than three members. Granted, I've got a few things you don't, but you're a seasoned vet most likely. I might be able to catch you with something, but if it failed, you'd be on the lookout and I'd loose any advantage I might've had. The bells are a distraction, aren't they? This whole test is to get us to work as a team."

Kakashi grinned behind his mask, _"I'll be damned. Someone finally saw through the ruse. Maybe I'll have a team after all this time " _He scooped up his book, "Maybe...you'll have to get the others and find out them."

"Yeah, but first.." Naruto grinned and charged straight at the one-eyed shinobi, going through seals as he ran, "Can't help to see where I stand anyway! **Doiton: Magmatic Fissure Jutsu!**"

"Whoa!" The man yelled as Naruto slammed his palm into the ground, forcing him to leap out of the way from the lava that had spewed up from a 10-foot long crack under his feet that the blond's strike opened up, _"Shit! Lava?! Where the hell does a GENIN learn that kind of move!? And what the hell is THAT!?" _He screamed to himself as he watched Naruto's right forearm transform into a 2-foot long sword blade, this time without the serrations. It even had a pair of curved spikes forming a guard.

"Say hello to my Nanoblade, Sensei!" Naruto said, forcing the jounin to go on the defensive.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was watching from a nearby tree, his face twisted in barely contained rage, _"How DARE that loser have abilities like that and not an Uchiha! I deserve that kind of power to kill him! Me; not some clanless freak!"_

A few trees over, Kasumi rolled her eyes and took a moment to make some rude gestures at the 'avenger' before going to find a better seat to watch.

xxxxxxxx

If you though that the lil bit with Inner Sakura was a hint towards possible redemption, weeeelllll..you'll have to wait and see.


	12. Chapter 12

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu/Kasumi**

xxxxxxxx

"That was fun, Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto grinned as his dusted himself off after a five minute assault on the jounin, "I gotta admit, you're good. Nothing I threw landed and you don't even look winded"

"Thanks..I think." Kakashi responded, staring at the crater one of Naruto's jutsus left, _"If this is his idea of fun. I''ll be damned if I wanna see him pissed."_ He turned back to the blond, only to find he was nowhere to be seen, "Heh, at least one of them has figured it out. Now, time for me to have some fun."

xxxxxxxx

(Sakura and Sasuke get taken down canon-style, fyi)

Sasuke cursed as he watched Naruto come up with an unconscious Sakura draped over his shoulder, his encounter with Kakashi had been less than stellar, though he had managed to touch one of the bells, "Get me out of here, Dobe!"

"Let me think about it..no." Naruto responded, laying the girl down beside him, "You haven't figured it out at all, have you?"

"What the hell are you blabbering about!?"

"The bells are a decoy, genius. A seasoned jounin against one genin fresh outta the academy, who do you think has the upper hand? The test is teamwork." He started shaking Sakura to wake her, "We have to work as a unit to pass."

"A team will only slow me down!" The Uchiha snapped, "I touched one anyway, I'll get it next time!"

BRIIINGGG!!

"Unfortunately, 'next time' wont be any time soon." Kakashi said, appearing behind him.

xxxxxxxx

The group was soon back at the posts, with Sasuke and Sakura each tied to one

"Why the hell are WE tied up?! Naruto no Baka didn't get a bell either!" Sakura hollered, shooting both free shinobi a look almost as cold as her crush's

Kakashi looked her dead in the eye, "Because, unlike you, Naruto figured out the real test. He even told you so you could work together. Teamwork is one of the most important aspects of ANY shinobi team, from genin to ANBU. However, neither of you even tried to look underneath for the real picture. Sakura, you're so obsessed with Saskue, you never even bothered to look for Naruto to help him. Sasuke, you're so full of yourself, you think being on a team is beneath you." Kakashi glared at them slightly, "Look, I'm going to give you another chance. We'll resume in half an hour. Naruto, don't give either one of them anything to eat." With that, the man disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Here," Naruto said, calling up a shadow clone and holding out some food to both of them.

"You idiot! Kakashi-Sensei told you.." Sakura snapped before being cut off

"Not to feed you. Yeah, yeah. I know." His brow raised some when a low rumble emanated from both genin, "But neither of you are gonna be in any condition to fight if you don't get something on your stomachs since you both skipped eating earlier."

Sasuke grimaced for a moment before giving in and eating. His 'groupie' quickly followed suit after seeing him.

They barely got in a couple of bites before the cyclopian shinobi reappeared.

And he looked pissed. "WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU!?" He roared, going through handseals, "FOR THAT YOU...pass." He smiled behind his mask.

"Pass?? But.." Sakura started,

"Yes, he disobeyed an order, but sometimes it's necessary to ensure the survival or your teammates. True, those who break the rules are trash, but those that willing abandon their team are worse." He gave them a thumbs up, "Tomorrow, Team 7 begins it's first mission

"Sweet" Naruto said, before catching something Kakashi had tossed to him.

It was one of the bells.

"You said you'd let me read that book if I gave you a bell. There's a bell, so gimmie! Gimmie gimmie gimmie!" Naruto sweatdropped as the jounin held his hands out eagerly.

"Perverts..I'm surrounded by 'em."

xxxxxxxx

**"BAH-HAHAHA!! Oh Kami, that's funny!" **Kasumi roared with laughter from inside the seal where she was watching Tora, the dyamio's cat, try to chew off Sakura's hair

"Bow on left ear. it's the right one." Sasuke said, an almost entertained look on his face as he watched the girl flail her arms around, screaming for someone to pull the damn feline off.

Naruto, on the other hand, felt a migraine coming on, _"Two months of pulling weeds, painting fences, and chasing this stupid cat..this isn't shinobi work, it's just doing lazy bastards' chores!" _

**"Calm down, Naru-Kun. You know these are just their idea of fostering teamwork and comraderie."**

_"Teamwork? 'Does not play well with others' is the only thing I can say about either one of them."_

After a brief fight to unlatch Tora from the kunoichi, Team 7 brought it back to the mission assignment office. There, the unfortunate animal was snatched up and put in a crushing hug by the Dyamio's wife.

"Tighter..tighter..squeeze it tighter.." Sakura let out an insane giggle as she watched the cat get smooshed.

After receiving payment for the task, Sarutobi looked at the team, "Well, since everyone else has already received new assignments, your choices are cleaning out a shed across town, helping at the daycare center.."

"TORA, COME BACK!"

"Or chasing down Tora."

Before Kakashi could answer, Naruto groaned, "Ojiji, please...there's gotta be something better than another D-Rank. I'm begging you; we've done over fifty so far."

"Naruto," Iruka piped up, "You're all still relatively new genin.."

Sarutobi raised a hand, "It's all right, Iruka." He picked up a folder, "I think I know what to do. This is a low C-Rank. A bridge builder named Tazuna is wanting an escort back to his home town in Wave Country. The worst you should have to deal with is possible bandits." He looked to Kakashi, "Feel your team is up for it?"

Kakashi never even looked up from his book, "Hm? Oh yeah, sure."

"Ok, you can come on out now." Sarutobi called out, watching a heavy-set man lurch into the room, a sake jug firmly in hand.

"Kami!" Naruto coughed, his nanite-enhanced senses catching the smell of booze, "This guy REEKS!"

"THIS is the team I'm getting!? I asked for Shinobi and you give me a bunch of brats still in their diapers! They all look like they'd piss themselves at the first sign of danger!" He started another insult when Naruto walked up and snatched the jug out of his hand.

"And you're a fatass whino bastard." The blond said dryly, braining him with his own jug.

"Naruto! Calm down. It won't help the mission any if you kill the client." Kakashi said,

"How about a light concussion?"

xxxxxxxx

Heh, the genin test was never really my best part. But don't worry. It gets better from now.

As for the results, it looks like Zabuza lives and FemHaku joins in.


	13. Chapter 13

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsus**

**Lord Ezra'eil: ** Harem, yes.

**Lord Sia**: LOL! That's funny

**Kisame Hoshigaki the Scourge**: Don't worry, he'll have something pretty close.

xxxxxxxx

"YOUR LATE!" Sakura screamed once again as Kakashi came up, his nose still buried in the book Naruto had lent him. Beside her was Tazuna, his newly bandaged noggin sporting the knot the blond had given him earlier in the day.

"Ohh, Mikimi, you dirty, dirty girl..." He giggled lecherously before looking up, "Sorry, I had to help an old lady across the street.."

"LIAR!"

"Oi, Kakashi-Sensei, how long does it take you to finish a book anyway? That's still mine, you know!" Naruto said, pointing at it.

"Actually I've already read it..twice." The jounin said offhandedly, only glare as Naruto snatched it out of his hand, "Hey!"

"I didn't say anything about letting you read it more than once."

Kakashi glared at him half-heartily for a second before stepping to the front, "Ok, it'll be a couple of days until we arrive in Wave, so just keep an eye open."

A few minutes later, the group was well on their way; Sakura trying to strike up a conversation with Tazuna about his home, Sasuke and Naruto on either side of them and Kakashi bringing up the rear. Everything was relatively normal until Naruto stopped mid-stride and suddenly turned to face the woods to his right, arms crossed and tapping his foot.

"All right, Kasumi. I know you're there." He said, rolling his eyes as the redhead walked out from behind an oak.

"Where'd the hell did SHE come from?!" Sakura yelled, pointing her finger in an almost accusing manner.

"I had a feeling something fun was going to happen on your lil excursion, so I asked the Hokage if I could tag along and he said ok.."

"Hold up, hold up..the Hokage said you...a CIVILIAN.. that you could come along!?" Kakashi asked, dumbfounded that the old mad would even make such a decision.

Kasumi simply grinned as she put her hand against the tree and suddenly drove her fingers into the wood, ripping out a chunk with a loud crunch, "Don't worry. I'm stronger than I look."

"I..I see.." Kakashi said, his visible eye as big around as a shrunken.

Sakura's jaw simply unhooked itself and dangled freely.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was livid at the fact that the girl who refused to submit to his demands was displaying strength that made his own pale in comparison, _"That's power I should have, not some no-name female and loser! It should be MINE!"_

Ignoring the shocked looks of everyone, except for Naruto and Sasuke who was grinding his teeth at the sight, she tossed the piece aside and wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck, "Besides, he said you'd be gone a few days and its kinda lonely sleeping by myself."

"Ooh, you're pretty close, eh?" Tazuna leered at the two before a metallic fist introduced itself to his forehead.

"We just share a bed, ya filthy-minded geezer!" Naruto growled before pointing a finger at Kakashi, who's expression told everything, "And goes for YOU too, Sensei!"

xxxxxxxx

"Damn abusive gakis.." Tazuna grumbled, rubbing his second lump of the day. The others ignored him as they resumed the trek to Wave.

It wasn't long before the group all spotted a puddle alongside the road. Sasuke and Sakura paid it no mind and Tazuna was too busy trying get drunk to care.

"The hell?" Naruto whispered to Kasumi, "It hasn't rained in almost two weeks. You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Kasumi nodded slightly, "Yeah, looks like the jounin notices as well. Whoever's behind it is either really stupid or full of themselves to think no one would suspect it."

The second they passed the 'puddle', pair of shinobi emerged from it, wearing oxygen masks and Mist headbands with long scratches through the symbols. One had a single horn decorating his while the other had two. Both welded clawed gauntlets with a bladed chain connecting them. In an instant, the chain was wrapped around Kakashi before the two missing nin used it to slice him to pieces.

"Four little pigges.." The two said in unison as they turned their attention to the genins

"KAKASHI-SENSEI" Sakura screamed, only to watch him be replaced by a cut up log.

"Substitution." Naruto grinned, rushing foward to grab the chain. Without a second word, he began wrapping it few times around his right arm.

'One Horn' began to laugh, "Eager to lose your arm, huh, kid?"

"Don't worry, we won't disappoint!" 'Two Horn' cackled as they started pulling on the chain...

Only to have the blond start pulling back in a twisted game of tug-o-war. The chain creaked slightly as each side pulled as hard as they could.

"What the hell is this gaki's arm made of!?" 'Two horn' yelled.

"Pull!" 'One horn' dug his heels into the ground, grunting with each tug.

"I AM pulling!"

"Well, pull harder!"

"Feel free to step in any time, guys." Naruto muttered to the others, who were staring at the spectacle before them. With one last pull, a pair of blades emerged from the underside of his forearm, cutting the chain apart and causing the two nin to stagger backwards as they tried to regain their footing.

Sasuke snapped out of and smirked as he lunged at the closest one, catching him off guard with a fist to the side of his head. Kasumi sent the other for a loop as her heel slammed into his chin, sending him off to dreamland

'One one', the one Sasuke had hit, snarled, "You little bastard!" He hissed before swiping at him with the gauntlet.

That is, before his head snapped back from being clotheslined by Kakashi, who picked that time to make his return, "Not too bad, you guys. Not too bad."

"Nice of you to finally pop back up, Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto said with a hint of sarcasm, removing the shredded gauze from his arm, "Who the hell are they?"

"They're known as the Demon Brothers, chunin-level missing-nin from Mist." He narrowed his eye at the bridge builder, "These aren't some simple bandits, Tazuna. The only only reason I can think of them setting an ambush like this is that they were sent. And since I sincerely doubt a genin team would be high on anyone's hit list, the only remaining choice would be you."

xxxxxxxx

After some minor 'persuasion', Tazuna admitted that he had lied about the danger of the mission. His homeland was under the grip of a coldblooded businessman named Gato who controlled all the shipping areas. Because of this, Wave was in almost total poverty and he had set about building a bridge to connect them to the mainland in an attempt to break Gato's hold. Gato, however, wasn't too happy about the idea of losing the power he had and had taken to hiring people to kill him.

"I knew if I had told the truth, the Hokage would've classed it higher and we can barely afford the current rank." Tazuna sighed.

Kakashi sighed, "Well, the presence of those two have just bumped this mission up to an A. Next time the attacker'll be a jounin level most likely, once Gato gets word they failed. We should head back to inform the hokage..but what do you guys think?"

"We already accepted the mission, and that's the same as giving your word as far as I'm concerned. And I DON'T go back on my word." Naruto said, crossing his arms as if to dare someone to argue with him.

"Don't think you're going without me." Kasumi added.

Sasuke, not wanting to be outdone, agreed, followed instantly by his groupie.

"Well, I guess it's unanimous." Kakashi smiled behind his mask, "Let's get going. We still have a fair bit of ground to cover."

xxxxxxxx

A couple of hours passed by without incident after the Demon Brothers, but that didn't give them much comfort. They were all keeping watch for another one of the businessman's attempts, with the exception of Sakura who was busy fawning over the Uchiha about his punch earlier. Fortunately, nothing of the sort had happened so far.

Suddenly, Sasuki hurled a kunai into some nearby bushes, scaring the crap out of Tazuna and Sakura, "I thought I heard something."

Kakashi went to check it out, finding a white rabbit looking like it just had a heart attack, the kunai less than an inch from its face.

"This kind of rabbit isn't native to this area. It shouldn't even be out here..unless.." His head jerked up, "A substitution."

It was then they all heard the whiring of metal.

"GET DOWN!" Kakashi yelled, grabbing Tazuna and diving out of the way as a massive sword came flying towards them. All but Naruto followed suit.

_"Hey! I know that sword!" _He thought, expanding his forearm into a shield to defend himself.

CLANG!!

The blade and shield collided with surprising force. The weapon went tumbling to the ground, but the impact was still enough to knock the blond off his feet.

"Naruto! are you all right!?" Kakashi said as the others climbed to their feet, "WHAT in Kami's name possessed you to do that?!"

Naruto ran finger over the small indention the sword had managed to put in his arm before it mended itself, "Because I know the guy that thing belongs to." He proceeded to glare and point behind Kakashi at a man standing nearby, wearing only trousers and bandages covering half his face, similar to Kakashi (I don't really remember what Zabuza wore, so bear with me on this). He had on a scratched Mist headband as well, "Zabuza, you ASS! That wasn't funny!"

xxxxxxxx

Sorry 'bout the delay. Had to get the chapter how I liked it.


	14. Chapter 14

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsus**

xxxxxxxx

"Zabuza, you ASS! That's wasn't funny!" Naruto yelled at the man, who by now was chuckling to himself.

Kakashi's head whipped between the two so fast the others almost heard the bones pop, "Zabuza Momochi..A-Rank missing-nin, better known as 'The Demon of the Mist". Naruto..you know him??"

"Yeah...me and Kasumi met him a couple of years ago, a few days after I finally got over my first kill.."

"What?!" Sasuke blurted out, "How could a loser like you have already killed somebody!?"

"We were jumped by a group of bandits a while back. I saw one try to sneak up on her and I reacted. It's not something I'm all that proud of." The blonde replied, his eyes telling the Uchiha to drop the subject, "Anyway, we traveled around with him for a while. Hell, who do you think taught me how to fight with my blade?"

"It's been a while, Naruto." Zabuza said as he collected his sword, "Though, aren't you forgetting someone?"

Naruto glanced around, "Now that you mention it.." Before he could act, a figure clad in a green battle kimono wearing a hunter-nin mask suddenly landed on him from out of nowhere. The two rolled a couple of times before stopping with the newcomer on top, and in a rather...provocative way.

"Who the hell's that?" Kakashi asked. He started to go help his student when Kasumi stopped him. He started to protest until he saw the bemused look on her face They watched as the person removed the mask to show an attractive girl around Kasumi's age. Her skin looked like it was made of ivory and her jet-black hair was done up in a covered bun.

"Hello, Naruto-sama!" She chirped happily, "I've missed you!"

"Uh..hi, Haku." Was all he could get out before realizing their current placement gave him a clear view down the front of her kimono, letting him see her rather impressive 'assets'. He quickly scrambled to his feet, shaking his head to clear the onset of any perverted thoughts, much to Kasumi's amusement.

"Uh, so..what brings you two out here?" He asked, trying to take his mind off what he saw, _"She did that deliberately."_

"Well, I was hired by Gato to kill that old man behind you and anyone he was with." Zabuza stifled a snicker as the others tensed up, "Although, seeing you two here is giving me second thoughts .."

Kakashi blinked in confusion, "How so?"

"I may be an ex-Mist shinobi, but I'm no fool. The gaki there can put up a hell of a fight, and there's no way I'm crossing HER." He pointed at Kasumi, "Besides, Haku would probably castrate me in my sleep if I tried to kill the guy she's hot for.." He was quickly silenced by the heel of Haku's foot colliding rather hard against his shin.

Naruto pretended he didn't hear that last sentence, as well as Kasumi's gigglefit, "Well, you could always doublecross Gato. So far from what I've heard about him he's an asshole and a half, and I can't really see either of you taking orders from someone like that. Besides, something tells me he'd probably try to renege on the deal anyway, one way or another."

This caught Zabuza's attention. Quite frankly, even though he had been hired to do a job, he despised the man. He may have had a certain fondness for killing, but even he would make sure it was quick. Gato enjoyed making people suffer beforehand. That and he already had to resist the urge to gut the repugnant little turd after he tried to buy a night with Haku. All things considered, he wouldn't be surprised if the little rat already had planned to do a doublecross himself.

He noticed the way Haku kept looking at Naruto Haku's face and sighed. He kept telling himself she was just his tool, but the notion of seeing her more as a daughter managed to sneak in. That and the blond was damn near the only boy he'd trust around her. "Ah, what the hell..all right, Gaki. You got a deal, on one condition." He ran a hand along the edge of his sword, "When the time comes, Gato's all mine."

xxxxxxxx

Just under a day had passed since Zabuza and Haku agreed to accompany them. At first, Kakashi stayed on alert, in case they tried anything funny. That lasted until he saw the missing-nin take out his own copy of Icha Icha and asked to trade. After that, the two were almost like brothers, much to the chagrin of the rest of the group.

Haku, on the other hand, spent the time with her arms wrapped around an exasperated Naruto's neck, happily nuzzling him.

It wasn't long before they had to take a boat to finish the trip. They quickly noticed the man piloting the boat was going as slow and quiet has he could, looking around nervously every so often.

"Hey! Why don't you just start the motor!" Sasuke snapped impatiently, earning a smack in the head in response.

"You wanna swim the rest of the way, runt?!" The driver whispered angrily, "Gato's goons patrol all over these waters, making sure nobody sails without his permission. I don't know about you, but I'd like to stay alive, thank you very much!"

As they made their way across, Tazuna motioned towards a huge structure in the water. "There she is; the reason he wants me dead so badly."

The group looked to see a massive bridge under construction. It looked to be over a hundred feet up.

Zabuza let out a low whistle, "Damn.."

"Once it's finished, Wave'll have a direct route to the mainland and won't have any need for Gato's shipping business."

The memory of the impressive structure was quickly squashed, however, when they made land and saw the state of everything. Abject poverty; just about everyone looked as if they were hovering between hunger and near starvation.

"This..this is horrible.." Sakura said, cringing at the sight.

Haku scowled, "He hired us to make sure things stay in this condition?"

Tazuna sighed, "Right now, Wave is completely dependant on Gato to bring in everything. His men have orders to attack anyone on a boat he didn't give the ok for, even if it's just to fish. We're little more than prisoners unless we get the bridge completed."

The bones in Naruto's fist popped as he tightened it, watching a little kid trudge by. Without a word, he took out one of his scrolls and pulled out a box of dango. They watched as he got the kid's attention with a brief whistle before tossing the box over, "Change of plans, Zabuza. I get to rip off the son of a bitch's arms, THEN you can kill him.

xxxxxxxx

Meanwhile, in a warehouse by the docks...

"You sure about this?"

"I'm afraid so, sir. It seems they've both joined up with the shinobi protecting the bridge builder."

A snort echoed in the building, "Send word to Kumo; it's time to call in a favor. Those insects are gonna learn exactly why you don't screw with Gato."

xxxxxxxx

Naruto may prefer to kill only as a last resort, but that doesn't mean he's above maiming. :p

It's short, I know; but I figured I should send in something so you guys know I'm still among the living. (so no complaining)

P.S: Yes, what do you think should be Sakura's fate? Redemption (finally seeing Sasuke as the ass he is) , or Inner Sakura finally taking over? It's a toss-up.


	15. Chapter 15

Speech

_Thought_

**Jutsu/Inner Sakura/Kasumi**

xxxxxxxx

"We're doing _what_?" Sasuke muttered, glaring at their one-eyed sensei. Less than a day had passed since the group arrived in Wave; they were invited to stay at Tazuna's place where they met his daughter and grandson, Tsunami and Inari

Tsunami was rather pleasant. Naruto instantly liked her after she gave Kakashi and Zabuza glares that put their manhood at risk until they put the books away.

Inari, on the other hand...no sooner did he look at them did he scoff and tell them they were all going to die. ("Cute kid." Kasumi deadpanned)

"Tree climbing." Kakashi replied, "Without using your hands."

The pink haired kunoichi stared, "That's impossible! Nobody can do that!"

"I beg to differ!" A voice called out from up in the trees, causing them to look up in time to see Naruto standing on the trunk. He grinned at the trio from his perch, hiding a snicker at the pissed-off look the two genins down below were giving him.

Kakashi pointed, "That's how. This'll be a perfect chakra control exercise for you." He then proceeded to explain the method and demonstrated the technique, walking up until he was standing beside the blond. He tossed a pair of kunai down to them, "Use those to mark your progress. Your goal will be to reach the lowest branches you can safely stand on." Making his way back down with Naruto, he added, "I'd suggest a running start since you're new at this."

"Where are you going?" Sakura demanded when she saw Naruto head off towards the pond that was nearby.

"Oh, me and Haku are going to beat the hell out of each other." He said with a smile.

"WHAT!!" She screamed, "You can't do that! She's a girl, you baka!"

**"Hellooo! Reality to my dumb half!" **I.S muttered, **"Both of them are ninjas, just like you think you are! Guy or girl, theiy're gonna get punched and kicked!" **But alas, her protests fell of deaf ears again,**"Kami, somebody get me out of here, PLEASE!" **

"Sakura." Kakashi sighed, wondering what god he had pissed off to get her, "Naruto probably means they're going to do some sparring. Since it looks like he's already got this down, I'm going to give him the ok. You two, however, better get a move on." He pointed towards the trees, "Chop, chop."

xxxxxxxx

"Damn, Haku! Where do you keep all those needles?!" Naruto yelled as he dove away from the kunoichi's newest volley of senbon as they sparred on the pond surface.. The girl's skill with her choice of artillery made it hard to get close without being made into a pincushion. That and the fact he had no desire to get in range of her Kekkai Genkai. He remembered the last time he got caught in; getting goosed regardless of which way he faced wasn't all that fun.

Zabuza looked out at the match over the cards in his hand, "Think he'll finally get her this time? We both know he preferrs to fight fair when it's just a friendly match. Gimmie three cards."

"Dealer takes one." Kasumi shrugged, "You never know, Naruto can be pretty unpredictable when the need arises." They looked to see him drop under the water. Haku quickly went on the defensive, looking to see where he might emerge , "Like that."

"He's still got to get by her ice mirrors, you know." Zabuza grinned as he put his cards down, "Three of a kind, ha!"

Kasumi only grinned and pointed.

Haku heard something come to the surface and wheeled around, only to see Naruto's clothes floating in the water. What that implied caused the girl to flush scarlet before the water in front of her suddenly exploded and she felt a pair of arms wrap around her.

"Gotcha!" The blond yelled in triumph as his victim squealed in surprise. With a poof, the 'clothes' turned out to be shadow clones before dissappearing themselves.

"No fair!" Haku pouted.

"Told ya. Full house." Kasumi laughed as the former mist-nin began swearing vigorously.

xxxxxxxx

Later that evening, Kasumi found Naruto reclining against a tree not far from the house. Kakashi and Zabuza were on guard duty for now, so things were a little relaxed. The pair had earlier gone to see how his teammates were handing their task. While Sakura, with her somewhat better chakra control, had managed to complete it after a couple of tries.

Sasuke however was stuck at the halfway mark. More than once, he got pissed enough to try and set fire to the tree. Fortunately, Kakashi talked him out of it. After a while, he finally ordered Sakura to tell him how she did it. Sadly, she eagerly complied.

"This seat taken?" Kasumi said teasingly, sitting down in his lap and snuggling up against him

He smirked as he wrapped his arms around her, "Nice night." He commented, looking up at the clear sky. As he looked, he begn to absentmindedly rub her belly through her sweater, her biggest weakness.

"Yeah..." She purred, enjoying the impromptu massage. After a few minutes, she went limp when she felt him kiss her neck, "Mmmm..that feels nice.". She let out a soft moan as he applied a little more pressure with his rubbing.

"Kasumi-chan?"

"Yeah?" She whispered, currently in heaven. She was enjoying herself too much to notice his hand slide up under her shirt.

**May not be a true lemon, but it is definatly citrus!**

"When I said I wanted to wait, I was talking about going all the way."

That caught her attention, "What do you..?" She met out another soft moan when she felt him gently cup and squeeze her breast, "N-Naurto.."

"I don't think this'll count. This is something I've been wanting to do for you a long time, Hime." He whispered, sliding his hand up under her bra and massaging her now hard nipple with his thumb, "But I was never sure how to tell you."

She arched her back out at his touch, "Ohh, that feels so good, Naru-kun...." She said huskily, pulling her top up to give him better access, "You wouldn't believe how long I've been waiting for you to touch me, koi...."

While his right hand pleasured her upper half, his left slid southward and began unfastening her shorts. Hearing the buttons snap, she looked and blushed brightly, "N-Naruto..what...?" She was cut off by a gasp as his hand slipped in and rested on her crotch.

"I'll stop if its making you uncormfortable." Naruto said, worried he had gone too fast.

She shook her head fiercely, "No! No..." She smiled shyly, "Your hand....it's a little cold."

"Oh!" He laughed before whispering in her ear, "Want me to warm it up?"

"By all means." She giggled, smiling as she slipped them off, exposing the thin material of her panties.

Naruto smiled as well, "Tie-ons? Naughty lil vixen." He gently undid the knows holding them on, his eyes staring apreciativly at what was behind them as they fell away.

Kasumi couldn't help blushing. She was completely free of pubic hair, "I take it you like?" She asked shyly. No one had ever seen her lowerbody unclad before. Her answer came in the form of his hand returning and her breath catching as it started to massage her sex.

"It's beautiful." He smiled, gently pushing on her clit as he rubbed. The action earned him a sudden buck of her hips against his palm and a loud squeak.

"Ohh..naruuu.." She moaned, going almost limp as he resumed his ministrations. it didn't take much for her to start getting wet.

It seemed that was what he was waiting for. As soon as he felt her moisture, he gently slipped a pair of fingers in between her netherlips.

She had to bite back a scream of pleasure as he entered. Instead, she settled for a lust-filled growl and ground her naked backside against him, earning her a slow thrust.

Naruto could feel her body tremble as he went, and forced himself to try and ignore her rubbing her shapely ass against him. As far as he was concerned, this was for her.

"Oh yes! Harder, Naru-kun..please..harder!" She whimpered as he complied, each thrust causing her body to shudder, "Naruto..I..I think Im' going to...!" She cried out in ecstasy as she climaxed, her pelvis bucking wildly in his her lover's hand.

He waited for her to catch her breath before she fully crushed her lips against his, "That was amazing! Thank you, Naruto." She panted, sweat beading on her forehead. "Wait.." She said, feeling him start to remove his fingers, "Keep them in me, please.? Just a little longer." She slosed her thighs on his hand to keep it in place."

He grinned before kissing her deeply, "You're wealcome, Hime." With that, he pulled her a little closer to help her keep warm.

xxxxxxxx

I apologize for the crummy chapter, but it was all I could really think. That and I wanted to try my hand at a lemon, or something resembling one at least.


	16. Chapter 16

Speech

_Thought_

**Inner Sakura**

Wow..unless I miscounted, looks like Inner will be taking over.

xxxxxxxx

"Well, someone's in a good mood today!" Haku chuckled as she watched Kasumi leave the house. The girl was damn near skipping.

The redhead smirked, "You don't know the half of it Let's just say Naruto is VERY good with his hands."

"What do you.." Her eyes widened, "Kasumi! I thought you said he wanted to wait!"

"He does. He meant doing...you know..." She looked around to be sure no one was near before leaning in to whisper.

Haku's eyebrows quickly shot up, before blushing furiously, "He...actually did that??"

Kasumi nodded, "I was in heaven.." She purred, "Forgot the last time I had an orgasm like that." Noticing the slightly jealous look her friend was giving her, she grinned and added, "I'm planning to return the favor before we go back to Konoha." She leaned closer and purred in the other girl's ear, "If you're a good girl..maybe you can help. I know how you feel about him, after all."

Haku could do little more than blush even brighter, a slight trickle of blood running from her nose at the thought of what that might imply.

xxxxxxxx

**"I can't believe you!" **I.S. snapped at her other half, **"That bastard just snaps his fingers and you're rolling over like a damn pet!"**

_"Shut up!" _Sakura hissed, _"He just wanted my help yesterday, that's all. It proves he's starting to love me!"_

**"RAH! You dumb bimbo! All he cares about is himself! He didn't even thank you after you told him! Why can't you go after someone more pleasant...like Naruto? At least HE'S not all 'the-world-owes-me' or crap like that! Not to mention that body..." **I.S. let out a lecherous purr

Sakura's expression went sour, "_That baka!? That's revolting! Sasuke-Kun is the only man for me, and don't you forget it!"_

I.S. growled, **"If only I could get outta here..." **She ranted before Sakura cut her off, **"I hope that prick turns out to be the biggest fairy in Fire Country!"**

As she tried to put her 'other self's words out of her head. the pink-haired girl noticed a certain blonde sitting in a lotus position, eyes closed and looking like he was almost asleep. At first she didn't think much of it, at least until he spoke up.

"You do know it's rude to stare, don't you?" He commented, ignoring her scowl.

"What are you doing anyway?" She demanded, halfway hoping it'd give her an excuse to take her ire out on him.

"It's not really any of your business, but I'm running a diagnostic on myself. I like to be sure everything's running smoothly once in a while." He opened his eyes and suppressed a grin at her recoil; images flickered across his eyes like a computer screen. They were small, but pictures of organs, limbs, and bones could be seen showing up, followed by what looked like technical read-outs, although she couldn't make out what it all said.

"What the hell are you??" She said, the demanding tone fainter, but still there.

Naruto couldn't help but grin as the scan finished and he got to his feet. Little did he know that grin was turning I.S. on a little.

"Me? I'm just Naruto." He replied, heading off to train and ignoring Sakura's annoyed screech.

xxxxxxxx

The following days proved to be rather uneventful. After finally getting tree climbing down, Kakashi made the attempt to have Sasuke and Sakura learn water walking, but that idea was met by resistance; Sasuke who demanded he be taught some offensive techniques, and Sakura who was quick to agree with the Uchiha, as well as unwilling to get her hair or clothes wet.

Then there was Inari. For some reason, Naruto and Haku found his constant declarations of them dying annoying. Even after Tsunami told them about his 'father's death at the hands of Gato and his thugs, it was still hard to feel sorry for the boy. It came to a head, though, one night while they were all eating dinner. Naruto finally had enough.

"Look kid, Gato's nothing but an asshole with a bunch of two-bit thugs and a lotta money. I seriously doubt he's gonna last long against us; so why don't you do us all a favor and give this 'your gonna die' junk a rest, all right?" He muttered before turning back to his meal.

Inari snapped, "You think it's all fun and games?! You idiots don't even know what 'suffering' means! You Konoha ninjas are all probably pampered and spoiled back home!" Before he could continue, a hand shot out and clamped down on his nose, squeezing it between two knuckles.

"Let me ask you something." Naruto said. His tone was calm, but Kasumi, Haku, and Zabuza could tell he was ticked off at the kid. He flicked the metal of his arm, "You know exactly what happened to my real right arm? I had just turned eight and had finally gotten a chance to enroll in the academy. However, a couple of people saw fit to keep that from happening. Two ANBU grabbed me before I could enroll in my first class. The bastards dragged me off and used me as a punching bag before one decided to end it. If another shinobi hadn't come up, I would have lost a lot more than just my arm." He let go, watching the kind hold his now sore nose, "Kid, damn near my entire town hates me for an event that happened on the day I was born. I've had people kick me out of stores, throw stuff and attack me simply for being alive, but do you see me going around acting sorry for myself and expecting pity from everyone? Your dad was willing to put his own life on the line to protect this place and everyone here; you, however, are doing a piss-poor job of appreciating it."

When he finished, Inari looked red with rage before running upstairs.

"Baka! Now look what you did! Go and apologize!" Sakura ordered. The blonde ignored her and headed outsite.

xxxxxxxx

Gato gave the trio before him an appraising look, all three were Kumo shinobi, "So you're the guys the Raikage sent, huh? How do I know you were worth the wait?"

"Mind your tongue. You should be honored we even bothered to come." One said arrogantly. The man dressed and held himself as if he was more of a nobleman than a ninja. His gaze seemed to hold everything he looked at in contempt

"Get over yourself, Ikigowa! You pompous jackoff!" A second growled. This one was shorter than the first, but was visibly more built, "You should be minding your OWN, unless you want Raikage-Sama to tear it out when we get back."

The third snorted; a woman who looked to be around her early twenties. Unlike the other two, she looked liked she was ready to kill them both the second she got a chance.

Ikigowa quickly made a hebi seal, causing her to cry out in pain, "Know your place, two-tails!"

"My name's Yugito, you miserable shit!" She growled, only to scream in pain again.

The second kumo-nin ignored then, "What's the job?" He asked looking at Gato.

"I want you to kill a group of ninja that are trespassing in Wave, as well as that turncoat Zabuza and his friend."

"The Demon of the Hidden Mist, huh? Sounds like fun. Anything else we should know?"

"One of my men said one of them bears a resemblance to the late Fourth Hokage." Gato smirked as he watched the two male shinobi's expressions darken.

"Not the real thing, but it'll do." Ikigowa sneered.

xxxxxxxx

As you can see, this was mainly a filler. Next chapter'll be the bridge battle.


End file.
